Pumpkin overnight oats are creamy, spiced oats you soak in the fridge overnight and eat cold the next morning. Real pumpkin purée, brown sugar, maple syrup, cinnamon and nutmeg, all in one jar.

Make a jar tonight and breakfast is done tomorrow. It’s a good one for busy cold mornings, and an easy way to work through a can of pumpkin in the fall without turning on the oven.

One thing to know: it’s not quite a dump-and-stir recipe. You need to warm up the milk to dissolve the brown sugar, which adds a couple of minutes. After that it needs at least 6 hours in the fridge, so make it the night before.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

It actually keeps you full. One jar has around 14 g of protein and nearly 9 g of fiber, so it holds you to lunch without a mid-morning snack.
You taste it before it chills. The pumpkin milk gets tasted warm, so you can push the spice or sweetness where you want it. Cold oats always taste less sweet than the mixture did, so aim slightly sweeter than seems right.
Easy to batch for the week. Cook one bigger pot of pumpkin milk, divide it across four jars, and you have a cozy fall breakfast sorted through Thursday.

Ingredients and Substitutes

Rolled oats. The base. Use old-fashioned rolled oats.
Chia seeds. Thickens the mixture as it sits and adds fiber. A small amount is enough.
Pumpkin purée. The flavor. Plain purée, not pumpkin pie filling, which is already sweetened and spiced. If yours is salted, cut the added salt down to a scant pinch.
Milk. Dairy or oat milk both work well here. Oat milk keeps it dairy free and leans a little sweeter.
Brown sugar. The main sweetener, with a slight caramel note that suits pumpkin better than white sugar.
Maple syrup. A second layer of sweetness with more depth. If you don’t have any, more brown sugar it is.
Cinnamon and nutmeg. The warm spice. You can swap both for a ready-made pumpkin spice blend, starting with ¼ teaspoon.
Salt. Sharpens the pumpkin and keeps the sweetness from going flat.

Step-by-Step: How to Make Pumpkin Overnight Oats

👉 Check out our overnight oats guide for in-depth instructions and more tips.

Warm the pumpkin milk. Combine half of the milk with the pumpkin purée, salt, and brown sugar in a small pot. Warm over low heat, stirring, just until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is smooth, then take it off the heat. If you’re using uncooked pumpkin puree, bring it to a boil instead and remove it immediately.
Add the flavorings. Stir in the maple syrup, cinnamon, nutmeg, and the remaining cold milk. Taste it carefully and add more spice or sweetener if it needs it. Aim slightly sweeter than you want the finished oats, since cold dulls sweetness.
Combine the oats and chia. Add the rolled oats and chia seeds to a glass jar and give them a quick stir.
Pour and stir. Pour the cooled pumpkin milk over the oats and chia. Stir well, scraping the bottom of the jar so no dry oats are left sitting there.
Chill at least 6 hours. Cover the jar and refrigerate overnight, or for a minimum of 6 hours. The oats soften, the chia thickens everything, and the spice settles into the pumpkin.
Stir and serve. Give it a final stir and eat it cold, straight from the jar. Add any toppings you like.

Tips for Success

Loosen it in the morning if you want. Chia keeps thickening overnight. A splash of milk stirred through before eating brings it back to a spoonable consistency.

Storage

Keep pumpkin overnight oats covered in the fridge for 3 to 4 days. A jar with a lid is easiest, but any container works as long as it’s sealed, since uncovered oats pick up other fridge smells and dry out on top.

If you’re batching for the week, portion the mixture into individual jars before chilling rather than storing one big container. They set better, and you can grab one on the way out.