Baked Oatmeal

This Baked Oatmeal is our favorite! It’s super chewy, soft, rich, and a little custardy with a slightly crisp topping. This oatmeal is loaded with fresh fruit and made with natural good-for-you ingredients.

Craving chocolate for breakfast? Try our chocolate chip baked oatmeal instead!

Baked Oatmeal

If you’ve never had Baked Oatmeal, it’s fairly different from your standard bowl of creamy oatmeal — actually, it’s a unique type of oatmeal! Baked Oatmeal is like a sweet breakfast casserole made with oats, eggs, and milk. It’s slightly custardy and creamy with a very chewy and slightly soft texture.

We add a small sprinkle of coarse sugar on top before it goes into the oven, which yields an irresistibly crisp topping. The chewy interior is bursting with sweetness from the fresh berries and lightly spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg. 

Instead of being overly soft, custardy, and eggy, we prefer our Baked Oatmeal more on the chewy side. You’ll notice this recipe has a bit less milk than most recipes; this yields firmer Baked Oatmeal bars. If you like yours to be super creamy, simply serve squares of this baked oatmeal in bowls and drizzle coffee creamer or additional milk on top — it is so good this way too!

This recipe is ridiculously quick and easy to make for breakfast, but the results are impressive enough to serve to company. You can make Baked Oatmeal in one bowl and with a wooden spoon — nothing complicated or overly time consuming for this breakfast.

Baked Oatmeal Ingredients

• Milk. Any type of milk works, but we prefer plant-based milk in this recipe to keep it on the lighter side. Unsweetened almond vanilla milk is what we use most often and macadamia nut milk is another favorite. For a richer and more custard-like oatmeal, use whole milk or 2% milk.
• Eggs. The eggs bind everything together and give rise to the oatmeal. We use one whole egg and an additional yolk for richness. Save those extra egg whites and add them to this egg wrap for lunch!
• Pure maple syrup. Not to be confused with corn syrup or pancake syrup, pure maple syrup is the sap from a maple tree that has been boiled down to a thicker consistency. It contains just one ingredient and is a great natural sweetener. See the “quick tip” below for more info.
• Vanilla extract, cinnamon, and salt. While small amounts of each, these ingredients all play big roles in the overall flavor of the oatmeal.

Baked Oatmeal Ingredients, Continued

• Melted coconut oil. It might be tempting to replace, reduce, or omit this ingredient, but coconut oil adds a nice texture and richness and ensures the bars don’t end up tasting gluey. For slightly firmer and richer oatmeal bars, use melted butter instead. I don’t recommend replacing the coconut oil with a different oil like canola, vegetable, or olive oil.
• Baking powder. This ingredient gives Baked Oatmeal rise and ensures the bars don’t turn out rubbery.
• Fresh berries. We’ve tested with frozen and fresh berries and only recommend fresh berries. The frozen berries made the oatmeal much more gluey tasting; they added too much liquid (water) to the oats. Feel free to use just 1 type of berry, 2, 3, or 4 different types — as many as you’d like, as long as the overall total remains the same (1-1/2 cups). Keep all the berries about the same size — we’re aiming for the size of a blueberry for each piece of fruit added into the oatmeal. 
• Optional: Our favorite way to finish off this baked oatmeal is with a generous sprinkling of turbinado sugar or sparkling sugar. It adds such a delicious, yet subtle, crunchy topping!

Baked Oatmeal Recipe Tips

• Use the correct-sized pan. This recipe is for an 8×8-inch pan. Very lightly grease with cooking spray or line with parchment paper for easier serving and clean-up.
• Bake soon after assembly. Don’t make the batter ahead of time and let it sit — the oats will absorb the liquid and bake up dry. As soon as everything is mixed together, pop it in the oven!
• Sweeten to preference. We like our oatmeal on the sweeter side, but you may feel differently. If you like less sweet oatmeal, reduce the amount of maple syrup. You can always add a drizzle more on top if you want extra sweetness.
• Save (and enjoy) the leftovers. This recipe is divine the first day it’s made, but leftovers heat up very nicely! Warm individual leftover bars in a bowl in the microwave and, if desired, add a splash of milk to add additional creaminess.

Variation ideas

• Make this into a dessert. If you like desserts that aren’t overly sweet (or chocolatey), serve this for a dessert instead! If serving these as a treat, add an extra drizzle of maple syrup and some fresh whipped cream or vanilla frozen yogurt on top.
• Make banana-nut oatmeal. Replace the berries with diced fresh banana and add in some coarsely chopped and dry roasted nuts such as walnuts or pecans.
• Craving some more crunch? Add in 1/3 cup coarsely chopped and dry roasted (or toasted) nuts or pepitas.
• Boost the nutrition. For more nutritional benefits, replace 1 tablespoon oats with 1 tablespoons flaxseed. Chia seeds will mess up the texture before the oatmeal is baked but taste great when sprinkled on top.

Baked Oatmeal FAQs

More breakfast recipes with oats:

• Oatmeal Smoothie with cinnamon and banana
• Soft-Baked Oatmeal Breakfast Bars with dark chocolate
• Oatmeal Energy Balls with oats and coconut
• Overnight Oats sharing my base recipe with three variations!
• Granola Bars with dates and pistachios

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5 from 4 votes

Baked Oatmeal

By Chelsea Lords

This Baked Oatmeal is chewy and soft with a slightly crisp topping, packed with fresh fruit and made with nutritious ingredients. Perfect for a cozy breakfast!

Prep Time: 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes minutes

Servings: 6 servings

Equipment

• Baking pan 8 x 8-inch
• Parchment paper

Ingredients 

USMetric

 

1x2x3x

• ▢ 1 cup milk see note 1
• ▢ 1 large egg
• ▢ 1 egg yolk
• ▢ 1/2 cup maple syrup see note 2
• ▢ 1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• ▢ 1/3 cup melted coconut oil or melted butter
• ▢ 2 cups old-fashioned oats see note 3
• ▢ 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ▢ 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• ▢ 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• ▢ 3/4 teaspoon salt
• ▢ 1-1/2 cups fresh berries see note 4
• ▢ 1-1/2 tablespoons turbinado sugar or sparkling sugar or light brown sugar, optional
• ▢ Serving suggestions see note 5

Instructions 

• Preheat oven to 350°F. Line an 8x8-inch baking pan with parchment paper or lightly grease with cooking spray.
• Add milk, egg, egg yolk, maple syrup, vanilla, and melted coconut oil (measured when melted) in a large bowl. Whisk until smooth. Stir in oats, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt with a wooden spoon until combined.
• If using all blueberries, gently stir them into the batter. If using raspberries, blackberries, or strawberries, cut down to the size of blueberries. Add in cut fruit and gently stir into the batter. Scrape batter into the prepared pan, smooth it with a spatula, and optionally sprinkle sugar on top. Bake promptly—otherwise oats will absorb the liquid and affect the end texture.
• Bake for 28–35 minutes or until set and lightly golden on top. (The longer in the oven, the firmer the oatmeal is; remove sooner for softer baked oatmeal.)
• Let cool slightly, cut, and enjoy! I like it best warm, but it can also be eaten chilled or at room temperature. It is crumbly right out of the oven and firms up as it chills. If desired, drizzle milk or even coffee creamer and maple syrup over the bars—so good! Add any leftover berries on top if desired.

Recipe Notes

Note 1: Any type of milk works, but I prefer plant-based milk (unsweetened vanilla almond milk) in this recipe to keep it on the lighter side. For a richer and more custard-like oatmeal, use whole milk or 2% milk.

Note 2: Not to be confused with corn syrup or pancake syrup, pure maple syrup is just one ingredient and a great natural sweetener! These bars are pretty sweet, so feel free to reduce the maple syrup if you’d like less sweet bars (you can always drizzle more maple syrup over baked bars if you want them to be sweeter).

Note 3: Quick oats and steel-cut oats won’t work properly in this recipe. 

Note 4: Use whatever berry (or combination of berries) you like best. These are great with 1 berry and great with a combo of 3–4! Only use fresh berries, though. Frozen berries affect the texture and make the baked oats watery and less flavorful.

Note 5: For serving, try additional milk or coffee creamer, additional maple syrup, or any leftover berries!

Make this Baked Oatmeal your own! If you prefer slightly softer oats, bake for a little less time and serve in bowls topped with a splash of milk or coffee creamer. For firmer baked oats, bake slightly longer and let stand out of the oven for 5–10 minutes before serving. (The longer these bars cool, the cleaner they cut out.) If you prefer less sweet oats, slightly reduce the maple syrup. For sweeter bars, add maple syrup on top after they’ve been baked! This oatmeal can be served warm right out of the oven (my favorite way to enjoy it), at room temperature, or chilled—whatever you prefer!

Storage: Once it has cooled completely, transfer leftover Baked Oatmeal to an airtight container and store it in the fridge. Enjoy leftovers for up to 4 days. Cut out individual portions, add to a bowl, and microwave. Add some creaminess back in with a drizzle of milk, coffee creamer, or extra maple syrup.

Nutrition

Serving: 1serving | Calories: 525kcal | Carbohydrates: 72g | Protein: 13g | Fat: 21g | Saturated Fat: 14g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 67mg | Sodium: 398mg | Potassium: 411mg | Fiber: 9g | Sugar: 16g | Vitamin A: 163IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 163mg | Iron: 4mg

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

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