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Homemade Oatmeal Muffin Mix

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This six ingredient Homemade Oatmeal Muffin Mix is perfect to keep on hand in your pantry for a quick breakfast or snack and also makes a great gift! #homemade #muffins #oatmeal #breakfast #easyrecipe

This six ingredient Homemade Oatmeal Muffin Mix is perfect to keep on hand in your pantry for a quick breakfast or snack and also makes a great gift!

A jar of Homemade Oatmeal Muffin Mix sits on a plate surrounded by a spoon and muffin tin.

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Original content posted September 2014.  Updated April 2021.

When Andy and I were dating in undergrad, after his parents visited he always seemed to have some type of baked good on hand that his mom had left behind.  Lucky for me, I often got to enjoy them.  One that became a fast favorite, was her Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffins.  

A great late night snack option when Andy was studying and I was building models for my interior design classes.  Little did I know just how easy were they were to make thanks to this Homemade Oatmeal Muffin Mix.

A spoon of Homemade Oatmeal Muffin Mix rests on the rim of a glass jar.

Oatmeal Muffin Recipe

This six ingredient Homemade Oatmeal Muffin Mix is perfect to keep on hand in your pantry for a quick breakfast or snack and also makes a great gift idea for neighbors, teachers or anyone you’d like to share a little homemade goodness with.  Why buy a store bought mix when homemade is better for you and your wallet?  

Flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, vegetable shortening and quick cooking oats – all pantry staples in my house! – are the key ingredients to this kitchen shortcut recipe.

A jar of Homemade Oatmeal Muffin Mix surrounded by a spoon, muffin liners and muffin tin.

A word of warning: you’ll need a VERY large bowl to make a batch of this mix.  I actually end up using the seven quart bowl from my stand mixer.  Sure, you could always cut the recipe in half, but to me being able to make a batch of this Homemade Oatmeal Muffin Mix that will equate to nearly seven dozen muffins is totally worth the effort of getting out a bowl that will contain all of the ingredients!  

How to Store Homemade Oatmeal Muffin Mix

I love storing the mix in quart sized canning jars as three cups of the mix fits in each jar.  This is the exact amount called for to make a dozen muffins.  You can also store the mix in food storage bags or a large food storage container with an airtight lid.

A spoon rests in a jar full of Homemade Oatmeal Muffin Mix.

What Can I Add to Oatmeal Muffin Mix?

This Homemade Oatmeal Muffin Mix is incredibly versatile.  Here are just a few of the muffin recipes I’ve created using it:

How to prepare Homemade Oatmeal Muffin Mix, steps 1-4.

How to Make Homemade Oatmeal Muffin Mix

[1]  In a large bowl, add flour, sugar, salt and baking powder.

TIP:   The bigger the bowl, the better!  You want plenty of room to be able to stir the ingredients together without making a huge mess of your kitchen!

[2]  Whisk together until combined.

TIP:  Be sure that you’re combining all of the ingredients from the bottom of the bowl to insure everything is well incorporated.

[3]  Add shortening to bowl.

[4]  Using a pastry blender, cut in shortening until it’s the consistency of corn meal.

TIP:  You’ll want the shortening in pieces that resemble a pea or smaller.

How to prepare Homemade Oatmeal Muffin Mix, steps 5-6.

[5]  Add oats to flour mixture.

[6]  Stir to combine.

TIP:  Be sure that you’re combining all of the ingredients from the bottom of the bowl to insure everything is well incorporated.

Store any muffin mix you do not plan to use immediately into an air tight container and store in your pantry or a cool, dry place.

An overhead view of a jar of Homemade Oatmeal Muffin Mix with a spoon, muffin tin, muffin liners and a napkin.

If you’ve tried this Homemade Oatmeal Muffin Mix or any other recipe on Melanie Makes, please let me know your thoughts in the comments below.  I love hearing from you and respond to each and every comment!

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Homemade Oatmeal Muffin Mix | Melanie Makes
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4.7 from 20 votes

Homemade Oatmeal Muffin Mix

This six ingredient Homemade Oatmeal Muffin Mix is perfect to keep on hand in your pantry for a quick breakfast and also makes a great gift. Why buy store bought when homemade is better for you and your wallet?  
Prep Time15 mins
Cook Time20 mins
Total Time15 mins
Course: Breakfast
Cuisine: American
Servings: 84 muffins
Calories: 85kcal
Author: Melanie Bauer | Melanie Makes

Ingredients

  • 7 cups flour
  • 3-1/2 cups sugar
  • 1-1/2 tablespoons salt
  • 1/4 cup baking powder
  • 2-1/4 cups vegetable shortening
  • 18 ounces quick cooking oats

Instructions

  • In a large bowl, add flour, sugar, salt and baking powder.
    TIP:   The bigger the bowl, the better!  You want plenty of room to be able to stir the ingredients together without making a huge mess of your kitchen!
  • Whisk together until combined.
    TIP:  Be sure that you're combining all of the ingredients from the bottom of the bowl to insure everything is well incorporated.
  • Add shortening to bowl.
  • Using a pastry blender, cut in shortening until it’s the consistency of corn meal.
    TIP:  You'll want the shortening in pieces that resemble a pea or smaller.
  • Add oats to flour mixture.
  • Stir to combine.
    TIP:  Be sure that you're combining all of the ingredients from the bottom of the bowl to insure everything is well incorporated.
  • Store any muffin mix you do not plan to use immediately into an air tight container and store in your pantry or a cool, dry place.

Nutrition

Calories: 85kcal | Carbohydrates: 15g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 1g | Sodium: 42mg | Potassium: 32mg | Sugar: 3g | Calcium: 4mg | Iron: 0.8mg

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Michele K. Winslow says

    Sorry, but I don't think this is a complete recipe. Yes for the mix, but what is the process to actually make the muffins? There are no amounts or additional ingredients to pull this together to make an actual muffin.
    Reply

    • Melanie says

      Hi, Michelle - If you follow any of the muffin recipes linked within this post you'll be taken to recipes using this mix. Hope that helps!
      Reply

  2. Julia says

    HI! I love your oatmeal muffin mix and make it quite frequently. Last time I made a batch I thought I'd try whizzing the flour and the vegetable shortening bit by bit in the food processor (to make my life a little easier) and it worked really well - as long as I didn't put too much of the ingredients into the bowl at once. =) I'm from Austria and usually we bake using metric measurments and while I do have a set of American cup measures I've never used them for the quantities needed in this recipe - haha! I did a looot of research looking for conversion charts for all sorts of ingredients, including info on "packed", "lightly packed", the weight difference between white and brown sugar, etc... I learned a lot - haha! But now I think I got a pretty good list of ingredients written down in grams. =) I also came up with my own recipe, mixing chopped hazelnuts and grated carrot in with the milk and egg. That was really nice! Thanks for the recipe!
    Reply

  4. Michelle says

    First off, THANK YOU for telling us straight off we need a big bowl. Nothing worse than starting something like this and having to stop and get bigger items. I love making food gifts and this is one of those items my family/friends would love.
    Reply

  5. Shannon Graham says

    Oh, this would be very handy to have made and sitting in the cabinet! Sometimes, it's nice to have a breakfast option that's quick like this.
    Reply

  9. Rosemary says

    I am a little puzzled about your use of ounces instead of a volume WRT the oatmeal. Is this supposed to be 18 ounces by weight or by volume, which would be about 2 1/4 cups.
    Reply

  10. Anna says

    This looks and sounds absolutely fantastic! Love oats! However, how is this going to end up being a dry mix to be stored if you work in vegetable shortening? (Which, since we don't have it over here, I understand to be liquid fat...?) Or am I misunderstanding something? Also, if I stored it longer, would the baking powder still work; especially with the liquid already mixed in...? Sorry if this is a dumb question. European reader here, not acquainted with some US ingredients. ;)
    Reply

    • melanie says

      Hi, Anna! Not a dumb question at all - I'm sure you have lots of ingredients in Europe that would confuse me! Vegetable shortening is a solid until melted so the muffin mix doesn't have any liquid in it until it's actually used in a recipe. Doing a little research, there appears to be a product called Trex available in Europe that's a solid vegetable shortening that should work in this recipe. Definitely let me know if you give it a try!
      Reply

  11. Reem says

    I like the idea a lot. I don't use shortening though and am wondering if using coconut oil to replace it would work... Also, how would oat flour and other no no-wheat flours go in this recipe? Ideas on these two issues would be much appreciated!
    Reply

    • melanie says

      Hi, Reem! I haven't tested this recipe with coconut oil so can't say for certain. The same with other flours. Definitely let me know your results if you give it a try!
      Reply

    • melanie says

      Hi, Erica! Unfortunately, I'm not sure as I haven't tried it before but if you do, I'd love to know your results!
      Reply

    • melanie says

      Thanks, Honey! I haven't tested the recipe using regular oats, but if you do, let me know your end result!
      Reply

  15. Karin says

    What a great idea - having all the dry ingredients already prepared and ready to go! I would never have thought to do this but it makes so much sense and makes whipping something up so much easier and quicker. And really, it's no more time to measure out several batches that one batch. Just divide evenly and throw in separate containers. Just need to make room to store it. Definitely going to try out your homemade mix recipe (was just looking at your Yogurt Blueberry Oatmeal Muffin recipe which is what brought me here) and going to make up several batches for future use.
    Reply

    • melanie says

      You're absolutely right, Karin - makes life so much easier! In fact, I need to make another big batch as I'm currently out and my little ones are demanding muffins!
      Reply

  16. Suzanne says

    Is there any "Nutritional Value information on this mix? Like Cholesterol types, fat amts., etc? I am looking forward to making the blueberry muffins, but am concerned about using "shortening".
    Reply

    • melanie says

      Hi, Suzanne - you could easily plug the recipe into an online nutrition calculator to get the information you're looking for. Just be sure to note that you're using 3 cups of the mix per dozen muffins. Hope that helps!
      Reply

  17. Tina says

    This Sounds so Great. I Would Love to try this out. But could you please explain, what shortening is? How does it 'work'? As i can't buy this in Switzerland, I will have to find out, what I could use instead. Than you so much! Tina
    Reply

    • melanie says

      Hi, Tina - greetings from the US! I often use Crisco, an all vegetable shortening product easily found in the United States. Hopefully you can find something similar in Switzerland. Let me know if I can help with any other questions!
      Reply

  18. Tracy says

    Looks great. Just wondering, as I seem to be deficient when it comes to using a pastry blender, will it "overwork" the flour, like it can with pie pastry if you use a food processor to cut in the shortening? Has anyone tried?
    Reply

    • melanie says

      Hi, Tracy! You're really just using using the pastry blender to break up the shortening into pea size pieces into the rest of the mix. Because the mix makes a LOT, I don't think using the food processor to do so would be a great idea, although I haven't tried it. I usually make my mix in an 8 quart stock pot before dividing it up into smaller containers for later use.
      Reply

  19. Lori says

    Looking forward to trying this in your apple cinnamon muffins. Maybe I missed it, but in the blog for the mix you said it was great for a quick breakfast. Do you cook it and eat it like oatmeal??? Or were you referring to the apple muffins making a quick breakfast? If this base recipe works for me, I'll be watching for more recipes to use with it.
    Reply

    • melanie says

      Hi, Lori! For quick breakfast, I was meaning that because the mix is already on hand it's just adding a few other ingredients and they're in the oven in no time. Let me know if you give it a try!
      Reply

      • Lori says

        Made this a few weeks back. Loved it! Very easy! Most of my cooking comes from boxes and cans so this is a great base recipe that truly is "homemade." Since you said it needed a "VERY large bowl" I cut the recipe in half and dug out my biggest Martha Stewart metal bowl. A half batch fit just right. (I'm planning on borrowing my mom's HUGE green tupperware bowl to make a whole batch for xmas gifts for family.) P.S. I got 8.5 cups of mix out of the half batch. I really love that the mix is shelf stable (I had to think about that...I haven't used Crisco in years. In thinking back, we always stored Crisco in the cupboard.) Review of the apple muffins to follow. Planning on making banana muffins later this week. Hoping you will continue to post more recipes to make with this great starter! (Oh, and do you have any other awesome mixes or make aheads as great as this?? With a little baby running around and having to go to work and do stuff around the house, every little bit helps! Thanks!
        Reply

  21. Michelle says

    Oh, WOW!!! I just watched Jennifer make tags and she was speaking about your recipe, so here I am, with a new muffin mix, muffin recipe and a free booklet with more delicious recipes!!! I feel like I've won the tasty food lottery! Thank you so much, I'm so excited! Now I need to find a mason jar large enough to house all of that muffin mix. Thank you! :D Can't wait to try it
    Reply

  24. Katrina says

    These sound really good, but I'm confused. I don't know if I'm just not seeing it, or the instructions are on a different post, but how long and at what temperature would I bake these if I just wanted oatmeal muffins or oatmeal chocolate chip muffins? And is the 3 cups of milk what I would add to whole muffin mix and nothing else?
    Reply

    • melanie says

      Hi, Katrina - this is just the recipe for the mix. I've linked to my Cinnamon Apple Oatmeal Muffin recipe that uses the mix as it's base. That recipe contains all of the ingredient and temperature details. Hope that helps!
      Reply

  26. Terry B. says

    Thanks for the chance to win. My hubby always takes me out to eat on my birthday! This is a recipe I'm excited about trying!
    Reply

  28. Carol B. says

    My hubbie and I give each other trips (usually short weekend) for our birthdays. The oatmeal muffin mix sounds fab! Must try!
    Reply

  29. Shanti says

    Thanks Mel for this quick recipe but I am unsure about the shortening as I have not used it before. Did you use Crisco? Any substitutes? Also is it possible to leave this out and add butter or margarine or even vegetable oil when making the muffins? Thanks
    Reply

    • melanie says

      Hi, Shanti - I use Crisco for this recipe. Easy peasy as my four year old would say! I have tried substituting it with other ingredients so I'm unsure of how it would turn out. If you give it a try, let me know your results!
      Reply

  30. Loly borda says

    I live far from my family and childhood friends so I celebrate my birthday talking on the phone with everybody and reading their messages on mails or FB and then go to dinner with my husband and stepdaughters.
    Reply

  33. Dee in NH says

    This sounds yummy and it's great that it stores easily! I usually celebrate my birthday by just plain doing no chores etc.
    Reply

  35. Margot C says

    On my birthday I make my own cake (I don't mind), and we have it after dinner, and sometimes I get a nice present or two.
    Reply

  37. Anne Hartschlag says

    I am over the moon happy to have this basic oatmeal muffin mix. I can't wait to try it with the Oatmeal Cinnamon Apple recipe.
    Reply

  41. sharon l-s says

    Love the recipes you have shared with Jennifer McGuire. This recipe is great for gifts at Christmas.. Thanks for sharing.
    Reply

  45. Amy @ Amy's Healthy Baking says

    That's so sweet of your man's parents! I remember how awful our dining hall food was, so I'm positive that homemade muffins (especially ones with chocolate chips -- I'm such a chocoholic!) would've been such a welcome treat. And I love how easy this mix is to make! :) Already pinned!
    Reply

  50. MaryB says

    I love celebrating my birthday with my hubby and a good friend - generally cooking together and then enjoying the meal outside on the deck.
    Reply

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