How to make baked oatmeal

Cold, blustery winter mornings make me want something hot for breakfast. The first food to come to mind? Oatmeal.

Oatmeal can be pretty boring, I’ll admit. But once you add some sweetness and flavor to it with brown sugar, fruit or nuts, it’s a little more exciting. Plus, oatmeal is filling and packs more nutritional value than a sugar-laden toaster pastry or donut.

For a hot breakfast you can make the morning of or even the night before, try baked oatmeal. I found this recipe in an old church cookbook and it’s pretty simple. It’s easy to make ahead and warm up when family or friends stop over for breakfast during the holidays, on the weekends or any other time of the year.

What you’ll need

Most of the ingredients for this baked oatmeal recipe are ones you probably have on hand in your pantry and refrigerator, which makes it even easier to put together

• Vegetable oil
• Eggs
• Packed light brown sugar
• Old-fashioned oats
• Milk
• Baking powder
• Salt

You’ll need a 9×9 pan to bake the oatmeal in. I used a glass pan.

To mix up the ingredients, have a large bowl, spoon and spatula handy, as well as measuring cups and spoons.

How to make baked oatmeal

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, combine ½ cup vegetable oil, 2 eggs and 1 cup packed light brown sugar. Mix well. The consistency will be pretty thick and sticky.

Add 3 cups old-fashioned oats, 1 cup milk, 2 ½ tsp. baking powder and 1 tsp. salt. Mix well. Make sure all oats are coated in the wet ingredients.

Pour the mixture into an ungreased 9×9 pan. Bake for 30 minutes. The baked oatmeal will look slightly brown on the edges when it’s down.

Remove from oven and serve immediately. Baked oatmeal is still soft like regular oatmeal, so you can cut it into pieces with a knife and serve with a spatula if you choose, but you can also spoon it out into separate bowls. Depending on how large or small you want each piece, you can get 6-9 servings out of the pan.

Pour about ¼ cup of milk onto each serving. You can top baked oatmeal with your favorite fruit or other toppings. Try blueberries, cranberries, banana slices or nuts; whatever you normally top your oatmeal with.

When I first made this recipe, I wasn’t expecting it to be as soft as it was once it came out of the oven. In my book, it beats out plain oatmeal any day of the week, especially because of how sweet the brown sugar makes it. Oh, and you can eat it with a fork or a spoon. Either one works!

Baked oatmeal

Temperature: 350 degrees F
Prep time: 5 minutes
Bake time: 30 minutes
Total time: 35 minutes
Servings: 6-9

Ingredients

• ½ cup vegetable oil
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 3 cups old-fashioned oats
• 1 cup milk
• 2 ½ tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine oil, eggs and brown sugar in a large bowl. Mix well.
3. Mix in oats, milk, baking powder and salt.
4. Pour into a 9×9 pan and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
5. Serve immediately. Pour milk on top of each serving, and top with blueberries, nuts, bananas or anything else you like on oatmeal.
6. If you’re not serving immediately, cover and store in refrigerator, then warm up before serving.

Have you made this recipe? Tell us what you think in the comments below.