Yes, you can use instant oatmeal in your cookies! Instant flavor upgrade, and no chilling required. Try these super easy apple cinnamon instant oatmeal cookies today!

I have to admit, I’m not a huge oatmeal fan. If I have to, I’ll eat it, but it’ll never be my first choice for breakfast, for cookies, for anything… Well, except in buttery crumb toppings in pies, bars and crisps.
My husband, on other hand, loves it!
I remember when he went to Mongolia for a month back in the day, he made sure to pack some of those instant oatmeal packets, for a little taste of home. It’s sure convenient, tasty breakfast on the go, especially when you’re away from home.
So as you can imagine, when Garrat brought home a giant box of assorted instant oatmeal packets, I wasn’t thrilled. It took some time for us to go through it all. To speed up the consumption and free up some pantry space, I started experimenting with them. Garrat suggested I make cookies. First, I thought, you can’t use instant oatmeal in cookies. That’s a no-no! But then on second thought, why not? Because I’ll miss the real oat flavor? I can live with that!
What makes these cookies so good?
After 5 (FIVE!) revisions, I finally landed on perfectly dense, chewy and full of flavor oatmeal cookies. Since the instant oatmeal packets are already sweet enough, we’re adding just a little bit of sugar for chewy texture and added moisture. Without additional sugar, the cookies were just lackluster.
Since perfecting the recipe, I’ve made these cookies many, many times. No one ever complained about lack of real oat flavor. My guess is that additional flavors have something to do with that! My favorite was apple & cinnamon, but you could use any flavors you like, or even mix n’ match. Maple & brown sugar was super good too.
I’m sure you have some instant oatmeal packets laying around. Go get them and start baking, because you’re gonna love them. Oh, and they smell amazing too!!

Are you an oatmeal person? Even if you’re not, I know you’ll love these cookies!
Thanks for reading.

Apple Cinnamon Instant Oatmeal Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ cup (115g) unsalted butter, softened
- 1/3 cup (65g) brown sugar
- 3 tablespoons (40g) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 5 packets apple & cinnamon instant oatmeal Note 1
- 1 cup (125g) all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 ½ cups add-ins like M&Ms, chocolate chips, nuts
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C).
- In a mixing bowl with paddle attachment, place butter and sugars. Beat on medium speed until nice and fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl.
- Add egg and vanilla extract and mix another minute or so.
- Add instant oatmeal, flour, baking soda and salt. Mix until just incorporated.
- Stir in add-ins of your choice. I used 1 cup of M&Ms and ½ cup of chopped pecans here.
- Using a medium cookie scoop (about 1 tablespoon of dough), shape the dough into 1-inch balls and place 8 cookies per baking sheet. Flatten the cookies slightly.
- Bake the cookies for 8 minutes, or until the edges are set, one sheet at a time. The cookies will look a bit under-baked, but they’ll set nicely once cooled.
- Cool the cookies on the sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer onto a cooling rack to cool completely.
- Store in airtight container for up to 5 days (if they last that long!)
Pierre says
This saved me time and resources. Messed up on my oatmeal and made amazing cookies out of it though. Thanks so much🔥💪🏿💯
Shinee says
Yay, so happy you put your oatmeal packets to a good use. Thank you for your feedback, Pierre!
Johanna says
I used 1/2 butter the rest coconut oil came out great
Shinee says
Thanks so much for sharing your tweaks, Johanna. So glad it worked!!
Stacie says
DELICIOUS! I have always had so many leftover oatmeal packets so I’m very happy to have found this recipe! I used bananas and cream oatmeal, a big dash of cinnamon, extra vanilla (as always), walnuts, raisins and chocolate chips! I used a 1 1/2 tbsp cookie scoop and baked a little longer, 11 minutes. It made 28 cookies. I can’t wait to try other varieties! I may buy a box of plain oatmeal just to play around with other add-in’s 😋
Shinee says
Hi, Stacie! So happy you tried and loved these cookies!!! Thank you so much for your feedback!!! I love your plan to experiment with different flavors!!!
Zinny says
Amazing!! So easy, especially for a non-baker. I too had a husband with excess instant oatmeal packets he no longer wanted. This recipe is so great and easy I made one batch with choc. chips, butterscotch chips and pecans. The next batch I used peanut butter chips and pecans. The recipe is so versatile. Thank you so much for posting it.
Shinee says
Yay, so happy you got to try this recipe, Zinny! And I’m so glad you loved it! Thanks for your feedback!
Grace says
Omg!!! I’m so happy I followed your recipe!! I’m keeping this one for sure. My cookies turned out perfect!! Yummy crunch and soft chewy inside. Not overly sweet… so good. I added chocolate chips. 🥰🙌 Thank you for an amazing recipe and easy one at that!
Shinee says
My pleasure, Grace! I’m so happy you tried and loved the recipe!!! Thank you so much for your feedback!!!
Kay says
These cookies are amazing! I made them with raisins and pecans.
Shinee says
Yay, glad you enjoyed the cookies. Thank you for your feedback, Kay!
Shinee says
So glad you loved these cookies. Thank you for your rating, Kay!
Bhanu says
Hi Shinee,
Made an Eggless version of your recipe with a few additions. It worked out great! They were the best cookies I made! Our neighbor’s kids are competing with each other to eat them! Thank you!
Used plain instant oats, Added Applesauce (wanted to use it up), cinnamon, couple spoons of cream cheese and 2 Tbsp of Flax seed powder into the flour.
Shinee says
Bhanu, I’m so happy you tried my recipe and thank you for sharing your eggless version!!!
Merial Nelson says
Easy peasy. Thank you so much.
Mary says
Yumm! I substituted 4 packets of raisin date walnut and 1 cinnamon spice, we didn’t have vanilla extract so I substituted woodford reserve bourbon added additional walnuts and some chocolate❤️ The dough is delicious, you are warned 🙃
Suzanne Jenkins says
Easy, simple, and delicious!
Megrarian says
The best oatmeal cookie ever, plus it uses up those pesky leftover instant oatmeal packets. Easy to make, and a lovely flavor. I have to admit an error though. I accidentally used almond extract vs. vanilla. Because I did so, I used my cinnamon spice packets, and as I said before, best oatmeal cookies ever! A true win-win.