These Almond Joy Overnight Oats make for a great filling breakfast. These oats taste like an Almond Joy, complete with chocolate, coconut, and nuts! Make them the night before and have a delicious breakfast ready in the morning.
Almond Joy Overnight Oats
Announcing the return of overnight oats, and right in time for your New Year’s Resolutions! Overnight oats are one of the best ways to stay on track for eating healthy breakfasts. They are ready when you wake up, so no excuses!
Although you likely wouldn’t want to make any excuses waking up to this dessert-like breakfast. Almond Joy Overnight Oats taste like a candy bar—and that makes breakfast anything but boring!
They’ve got all the delicious flavors from an Almond Joy candy bar: coconut, chocolate, and almonds! Then you’ve got flaked coconut and coconut extract, cocoa powder, and almonds to top off the oats.
Ingredients
- Milk: Any type of milk works in overnight oats. I like to use unsweetened vanilla almond milk.
- Oats: Old-fashioned oats work best. Steel-cut oats stay too hard and chewy. Quick oats soak up too much milk and make the texture mushy.
- Special Dark Cocoa Powder: I use Hershey’s Special Dark cocoa powder for rich chocolate flavor. It’s a Dutch-process cocoa, which gives a deeper flavor than regular cocoa powder. Any Dutch-process cocoa will work, but Special Dark is easy to find in most stores.
- Unsweetened coconut flakes: Along with the oats, the coconut softens a great deal overnight. If you want it to stay crisp, don’t mix it in—just sprinkle it on top when you’re ready to eat.
Quick Tip
Make them thicker. I love creamy oats—the creamier, the better! I’d say these overnight oats are fairly creamy (even after thickening overnight). If you’d like them thicker, just stir in a tablespoon or two of chia seeds or a few extra oats.
Ingredients, continued
- Maple syrup: This is my favorite sweetener to add to overnight oats. Depending on how sweet you like your breakfast, you can scale this up or down. I like at least 1 tablespoon and up to 2 tablespoons for a sweeter breakfast. You can also use liquid stevia drops instead if you want a no-calorie option.
- Almond and coconut extracts: These extracts add subtle flavor to the oats. While they certainly increase the “Almond Joy” flavor, these extracts aren’t fully necessary, so don’t worry if you don’t have them on hand. If you have them, just use 1 or 2 drops. They’re strong! Add more if you want a stronger flavor.
- Salt: It brings out the other flavors and helps everything taste balanced in Almond Joy Overnight Oats.
- Yogurt: I love Greek Gods’ Honey Vanilla Yogurt in these overnight oats. No matter what kind you use, make sure it’s one you like eating plain. If you don’t like it straight out of the container, you likely won’t like the flavor it gives these oats. Get one with a milder flavor. If it’s too strong, that’s all you’ll taste in the oats.
Quick Tip
Almond Joy, Hershey’s, and Greek Gods are brand names. I use these names so you know exactly what I’m talking about, but feel free to use other similar brands.
Almond Joy Overnight Oat toppings
These oats are amazing without any toppings. That said, if you’d like to add some toppings, these are my favorites:
- Mini chocolate chips or coarsely chopped dark chocolate bar
- Dry–roasted almonds (whole or coarsely chopped)
- A swirl or spoonful of almond butter
- Unsweetened coconut flakes
Almond Joy Overnight Oats variations
- Amp up the coconut flavor. For an even stronger coconut flavor, use a coconut yogurt in place of the Greek yogurt.
- Add some chia seeds. For thicker oats, add 1–2 tablespoons chia seeds the night before. The chia seeds will gel as they absorb the liquid—more info on chia seeds here.
- Add almond butter. A lot of overnight oat recipes I’ve shared have almond or peanut butter for more satiating power, healthy fats, and flavor. Add 1–2 tablespoons of a good roasted almond butter if you want.
More nutritious breakfast recipes
- Healthy Breakfast Cookies with peanut butter
- Healthy Banana Muffins naturally sweetened
- Soft-Baked Oatmeal Breakfast Bars with dark chocolate
- Peach Overnight Oats with a quick streusel
- Strawberry Scones with Greek yogurt
Almond Joy Overnight Oats
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup honey vanilla Greek yogurt
- 2/3 cup vanilla almond milk see note 1
- 1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
- 2 tablespoons coconut flakes unsweetend
- 1-1/2 tablespoons Dutch process cocoa powder
- Salt
- 1-1/2 tablespoons pure maple syrup see note 2
- 1 to 2 drops almond extract or coconut extract, see note 3
- Optional toppings see note 4
Instructions
- In a small bowl, jar, or plastic container, stir together the yogurt, milk, oats, coconut flakes, cocoa powder, salt, and maple syrup. Add in the optional almond extract and coconut extract if you’re using them.
- Stir until all ingredients are well incorporated. Taste the mixture and add any additional maple syrup if needed.
- Cover the container and place in the fridge overnight or until sufficiently cooled and thickened. Sometimes I'll even make them in the morning, get ready, and then go eat them, they are great even after just 30 minutes in the fridge.
- Just before serving, top oats with some roasted almonds, coconut flakes, mini chocolate chips, or a drizzle of almond butter. If desired, lightly toast coconut by placing it in a small skillet over medium heat. Stir constantly until lightly colored, golden brown, and fragrant.
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Seriously what is better than a {healthy} candy bar for breakfast?! Yes please!
I love making oats taste like candy bars (the beauty of protein powders, nuts and textures) and this looks so good- adding coconut is one of my favourite things!
My favorite candy bar combo. I eat some form of oatmeal a least 4 mornings. Perfect!
With overnight oats like this, how can I even complain about being healthy this year?! 😀 Love this recipe, Chelsea. Almond joys are one of my favorite candies, so having them for breakfast sounds amazing.
Love the idea of almond joy flavored oats.
I was not a big overnight oats fan until I tried your peanut butter cup overnight oats. They are amazing. I can’t wait to try this recipe.
yum! anytime i can have dessert for breakfast i’m totally in!
There’s no saying no to something as tasty as this recipe. I mean, it’s oatmeal that tastes like a candy bar. It’s a no brainer.
Great healthy breakfast, I love how chocolatey these are! Love overnight oats!
Overnight oats are one of my favorite morning “cheats” and these look positively sinful! Can’t wait to try them out for myself, Chelsea!