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This Pumpkin Spice Oatmeal in the Slow Cooker brings all the best fall flavors straight to your bowl—think pumpkin puree, cinnamon, and a drizzle of maple syrup. It’s a hands-off, make-ahead breakfast that’ll keep the whole family happy and satisfied. The best part? It takes just minutes to prep the night before! Great for busy fall mornings!
Table of Contents
Why I Love This Recipe
- Effortless Mornings: There’s nothing better than a slow cooker recipe! Simply toss everything in before bed, and wake up to the smell of pumpkin spice perfection. This is one of my favorite low-effort breakfasts.
- Packed with Fall Flavor: This recipe is similar to my Slow Cooker Oatmeal recipe, but packed with fall flavors like pumpkin puree, warm spices, and a touch of maple syrup. It’s the ultimate autumn breakfast.
- Healthy and Filling: Oats, pumpkin, and just the right amount of sweetness make this a healthy start to your day. Plus, you can customize with more nutritious toppings!
- Kid-Friendly: This slow cooker oatmeal is like having pumpkin pie for breakfast… but healthy! Your kids will be obsessed just like mine.
- Pumpkin Perfection: We love all things pumpkin especially during the fall. If we’re not making this recipe we’re making Pumpkin Pear Bread, Flourless Pumpkin Chocolate Muffins or these adorable Pumpkin Pie Pop Tarts.
The Ingredients
- Steel-cut oats: For slow cooker oatmeal, I recommend using steel cut-oats as they are the heartiest oats and perfect for slow cooking.
- Milk of choice and Water: A combination of water and your milk of choice creates the perfect texture for this oatmeal. Store-bought or homemade almond milk or oat milk all work great here for extra creaminess.
- Pumpkin puree: Adds richness and that irresistible pumpkin flavor. It’s simple to use canned from the store, or you can make your own pumpkin puree!
- Pumpkin pie spice: If you don’t have pumpkin pie spice, use a mix of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves to bring out all the fall vibes.
- Maple Syrup (optional): You can add maple syrup to taste before cooking or let everyone customize their bowl by drizzling as much or as little as they want it on top after.
How to Make Pumpkin Spice Oatmeal in the Slow Cooker
Step 1: Place all the ingredients in the crock pot and stir to combine.
Step 2: Cover and cook on low for 4-8 hours (note that the cooking time can vary depending on your crock pot. Crock pots without non-stick surfaces tend to get hotter, so you’ll want to stick closer to a 5 hour cooking time).
Tips and Tricks
- Overnight Oats Made Easy: This is a great make ahead breakfast. Set the slow cooker to low before you go to bed, and by morning, you’ll have a warm, hearty meal waiting for everyone.
- Type of Oats: Use steel cut oats for this recipe. They hold up better than rolled oats when it comes to slow cooking.
- The Cook Time: Keep in mind that the cooking time can vary depending on your crock pot. Crock pots without non-stick surfaces tend to get hotter, so you’ll want to stick closer to a 5 hour cooking time.
- Custom Toppings: Stir in some dried cranberries, raisins, chopped apples, walnuts, or pecans, or a handful of chocolate chips right before serving for an extra treat.
- Storing Leftovers: If you have any leftover oatmeal (although it’s so good, you might not!), store it in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days. Reheat it on the stovetop or in the microwave with a splash of milk to loosen it up.
More Irresistible Oatmeal Recipes
There’s nothing better than pumpkin recipes, especially in the fall! This oatmeal is one of our go-to’s! It’s simple to make, delicious and kids absolutely love it! Be sure to let me know in the comments how it turned out!
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Pumpkin Spice Oatmeal in the Crock Pot
Ingredients
- 2 cups water
- 2 1/2 cups milk of choice
- 1 cup pumpkin puree
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin spice
- 1 cup steel cut oats
Instructions
- Place all the ingredients in the crock pot and stir to combine.
- Cover and cook on low for 4-8 hours (note that the cooking time can vary depending on your crock pot. Crock pots without non-stick surfaces tend to get hotter, so you’ll want to stick closer to a 5 hour cooking time).
Notes
- You can also use oat, almond, rice or any plant based milk if you want to make the oatmeal vegan.
This is my husbands new favorite breakfast. I have made it three or four times. I always double the recipe and we keep the extra in the fridge, so he can heat some up whenever he wants it. Tonight I added ground flaxseed for some extra healthy Omega 3s. 🙂 He loves it with honey or a few chocolate chips to sweeten it up. Thanks for all the great recipes!
Suzannah~
i put mine on warm over night and it comes out perfect!!!
I was so excited to try this, but it came a burned mess. Can you shed some light on what went wrong? I followed your directions exactly, had all the right ingredients. I put it on at 10:30pm on low for 8 hours. I know you said put it on low for 5 hours, but…
1. We’re not going to eat it at 3:30am 🙂
2. My slow-cooker’s options are 4 and 6 hours on HIGH, and 8 and 10 hours on LOW.
Thoughts?
My
[…] Pumpkin Spice Oatmeal – Prep your slow cooker the night before and wake up in the morning to this delicious […]
Yeah, those would become too mushy. You really need to use the real steal cut oats!
I have Trader Joes 8min steal cut oats. Is that still a no go for mushiness? I was thinking of trying the pumpkin kind for my 15 month old for breakfast 🙂
[…] Pumpkin Pancakes, The Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen Pumpkin Granola, Two Peas & Their Pod Pumpkin Spice Oatmeal in the Crockpot, Weelicious Pumpkin Pie Yogurt, Kathy Eats Real […]
You can keep this for about 3 or 4 days in the refrigerator. Yes, heat in the microwave or stove top!
How many days can I keep this in the refrigerator? Should I just reheat in microwave?
I don’t have that information on hand, but there are some great resources out there for calculating nutritional information! Spark People, My Fitness Pal, and Weight Watchers are some of the ones I have heard of!
do you have the nutritional breakdown please thank you
You nailed this one. Me and my kids love oatmeal, but I am fan of smooth oatmeal without “stuff” in it, so I usually keep it simple with just maple or cinnamon. (And I never saw the benefit to doing it overnight – seemed like a worthless hassle. Wrong!) We LOVED this. It had a different flavor without any chunks or chewy things. This might be one of my fave Wee recipes ever. Of course, I have to add brown sugar, but because of the pumpkin flavor, it needed very little. Wow – so yummy.
I make something very similar to this, but I toast the steel cut oats in the pan with earth balance butter before I cook. I also add dates and shredded coconut to the mix. It goes down very well in my household. I plan on making it tonight for a yummy brekkie tomorrow.
Just wanted to tell you that this this my new favorite oatmeal recipe! I’ve made it 3 times this month, and gave the recipe to my mom to try and she’s made it a few times as well. Thank you!!
Made this over the weekend. Yummy – but I cooked it for 8 hours and it stuck so bad 🙁 I’ll try it for 6 next time. Took Claras tip and filled up my silicone muffin pan for individual preschool portions – makes life so much easier!!
Hi there, I tried this and it was delicious. We are dairy free so I substituted Coconut Dream for the milk (delicious!). I didn’t have pumpkin pie spice and used a combo of cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, cloves, ginger.
Here’s my question: every time I make crock pot oats (this recipe and others) I get a film on the top. Even when it’s stirred in it sometimes leaves kind of chunky bits. Does anyone else have this problem? I’ve had this problem when using just water as well as when I use a milk or milk substitute.
I use a large crock pot if that’s helpful info.
Help!