Baked Oatmeal Recipe • Bri K's Dusky Illusions

My family has been eating baked oatmeal since the dawn of time, it seems. I remember being a little girl and waking up on a Saturday morning to the smell of cinnamon filling up the house as it baked. Fond memories to say the least. It was a tradition I raised my own kids with, and sharing with my grand kids too as they have come along. This is our traditional recipe that I grew up with, my father grew up with… We have the tendency to make it less sweet. You can make yours as sweet as you like. I am going to list what I actually used when I baked it this morning in another recipe section below. You can also add your choice of fruits, seeds or nuts. I make a couple batches at a time and freeze them in individual servings.

Baked Oatmeal – Traditional Recipe

Preheat oven to 375 degrees, prepare 13 x 9 inch casserole dish by greasing it. Can use shortening, butter or oil.

In a large bowl, mix in the following:

5 cups rolled oats
1 teaspoon of baking powder
3 to 4 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice (cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger combo) you can add more or less to your own tastes.

In another large bowl blend the

2 large eggs
2/3 cups sweet item (orange juice, peach syrup, maple syrup, apple sauce, mashed banana etc)
2 teaspoons of vanilla or your favorite extract
2 1/2 cups of milk (almond, cows, rice, etc)

Add to dry ingredients.

Fold in

2 cups chopped fruit of your choice. You can use fresh, frozen, canned or dried.

Add ins:

1/2 to 1 cup nuts or seeds
1 to 2 cups dried fruits.

If you find that you need more liquid in yours, add more milk. If you want a little sweeter, add some brown sugar, maple syrup, honey, etc. If its too “soupy” add a bit more oatmeal.

Pour mixture into prepared pan, bake for about 30 mins, the top will be a golden color.

Cut into 12 servings and serve. If you let it set a bit before pulling it out of the pan, they hold their shape better, especially if you want to freeze the portions for quick breakfasts.

To Freeze and use later:

Wrap cooled slices in saran wrap, place in a zip lock freezer bag. Make sure you date and label the bag. I always write the reheat instructions on mine too.

Methods of reheating:

Let it thaw and eat at room temperature. This is great for kid’s lunch boxes. I don’t know how I got so lucky, but my kids would pick this over cookies. The frozen oatmeal square would keep their other foods cool while it defrosted in their lunch box.
Microwave right out of the freezer until defrosted and as warm as you like. I usually do it 30 seconds, check, 30 seconds more until it’s how I like it.
Bake in 375 oven for about 10 mins.

Baked Oatmeal... Look at that cranberry! Can you believe it was once dried?? — Baked Oatmeal… Look at that cranberry! Can you believe it was once dried??

And as promised, this is the recipe I made this morning. I always have a lot of dried fruit in my pantry. They work for everything, and if you need fresh or frozen, like cranberries for instance, dried reconstitutes nicely as shown in the picture here. If a recipe calls for 1 cup of fresh or frozen fruit, you can add 1 cup of dried fruit to some liquid. Dried cranberries with orange juice are a perfect combination. I had a friend growing up, who’s mom made the best cherry pie from dried re-awakened cherries… That is another post entirely.

Baked Oatmeal – Bri K’s Toss Together Peach and Cranberry

Preheat oven to 375 degrees, prepare 13 x 9 inch casserole dish by greasing it. Can use shortening, butter or oil.

In a large bowl, mix in the following:

5 cups rolled oats
1 teaspoon of baking powder
3 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice (cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger combo) you can add more or less to your own tastes.

In another large bowl blend together

2 large eggs
1 and 2/3 cups peach syrup from can ( I can my own so the syrup is not as sweet as store bought.)
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
2 cups of milk (because I was using a liquid for my sweet, I only used 2 cups of almond milk.)

Fold in:

2 cups chopped canned peaches
1/2 cups of walnuts
2 cups of dried cranberries
2 tablespoons of maple syrup

If you find that you need more liquid in yours, add more milk. If you want a little sweeter, add some brown sugar, maple syrup, honey, etc. If its too “soupy” add a bit more oatmeal.

Pour mixture into prepared pan, bake for about 30 mins, the top will be a golden color.

Cut into 12 servings and serve. If you let it set a bit before pulling it out of the pan, they hold their shape better, especially if you want to freeze the portions for quick breakfasts.

Before I close, I should tell you there are various ways you can eat this. You can eat it as is… You can pour milk over it, top with vanilla yogurt, add fresh fruit or maple syrup, or my favorite, adding 1 to 2 tablespoons of maple syrup to 1 cup of vanilla yogurt and whipping it together for a nice topping. The possibilities are really endless.