How to Make Baked Oatmeal Without a Recipe

A dish of baked oatmeal makes even the chilliest mornings better.
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Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Food Styling by Anna Stockwell

Learning how to make baked oatmeal will save your winter morning. I always have a hard time getting out of bed, but especially on cold mornings. I hate leaving my cozy world of blankets—I hit snooze until there's no time to make the kind of warming breakfast I love to eat. So until I find the man of my dreams who'll bring me hot coffee and oatmeal in bed on the chilliest mornings, I'll make baked oatmeal and reheat it when I wake up for the quickest possible winter breakfast.

If you've never learned how to make baked oatmeal before, it's time to give it a try. It's wonderfully somewhere between a chewy granola bar and a bowl of oatmeal. It's a little bit creamy, a little bit chewy, and totally satisfying.

Baked oatmeal is made by layering fruit and oats and nuts and spices into a baking dish, and then pouring a mixture of liquid and a beaten egg over everything and baking it until it's crisp and golden-brown. It's just as good fresh out of the oven as it is reheated the next (or the next or the next) day in the oven or microwave. Or even sliced and fried on the stove.

And the best part, of course, is how easily customizable it is. Simply memorize the formula of one part dry ingredients, one part wet ingredients, one egg, one quarter part sweetener, and one part fruit and you'll never have to look at a recipe for how to make baked oatmeal again.

Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Food Styling by Anna Stockwell

1. Make your dry mix

Obviously, you're going to need some oats—these will form the base of your dry mix. Make sure they're not quick-cooking oats, though, traditional rolled oats only please. If you want some added texture and protein in your baked oatmeal, add some nuts and/or seeds and/or coconut flakes to your oats.

You want about 1/4 cup (or one handful) of dry oats per person, and you want your dry mixture to be at least three quarters oats. I found that starting with 2 cups of dry ingredients and following the ratio from there fits just right in an eight-by-eight inch square baking dish, and feeds six to eight people (or one or two people eating it for a week.) Mix together your dry ingredients with some spices and some salt to season—try cinnamon, or nutmeg, or cardamom, or whatever you like, and be generous with your salt pinch.

2. Make your wet mix

You need exactly the same amount of wet mix as dry mix to get the best textured baked oatmeal. I like a super-creamy baked oatmeal, so I use milk with a bit of melted butter and vanilla as my wet mix. It doesn't have to be cows milk though—any kind of milk will work: oat milk, rice milk, soy milk, almond milk, coconut milk, etc. It doesn't even have to be a milk—you can just use water, or a mix of yogurt and water, or applesauce and water, or keifer or whatever liquid you want to infuse your baked oatmeal with.

If you want to add richness in a different way, you could use olive oil, canola oil, or melted coconut oil instead of butter, or simply skip that extra richness entirely. To flavor this mixture, vanilla is always a nice touch, but you could use a little splash of citrus juice or almond extract or straight up whiskey or brandy instead. Once your wet mix equals the same amount as your dry mix, add a whisked egg—the egg does not count as part of your wet mix measurement.

Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Food Styling by Anna Stockwell

3. Sweeten to taste

The best way to sweeten baked oatmeal is to add a liquid sweetener to your wet mix. I love a little maple syrup in my baked oatmeal, but honey and agave nectar are also great options. Rather use regular white or brown sugar? That works too—just whisk it into your wet mix instead.

You don't need much—about 1/4 the amount of your total wet mix measurement. (So if you're going with my 2 cups of oats standard above, that's 1/2 cup of sweetener.) It's better to err on the side of less sweetener, because you can always top your baked oatmeal with some syrup or sugar if you want it sweeter when you eat it.

4. Line your baking dish with fruit

Once you have your wet and dry mixes ready to go, it's time to start assembling your baked oatmeal. Pick out a baking dish that you think will fit the amount you're making—if you want thinner, crispier servings, use a wider dish, or use a smaller deeper dish for thicker, moister servings.

Brush that dish with plenty butter (or oil if you're not into butter), then spread your fruit evenly across the bottom. You can use any combo of chopped fruit or whole berries that you like, and they can be fresh, dried, or frozen. I love using wild frozen blueberries. Diced apples mixed with raisins or currants are always nice (especially with extra cinnamon).

Use the same measurement of fruit as whatever amount of dry mix and wet mix you're using. If you hate fruit (or if your kiddo hates fruit or you don't have any in the house) you can skip it, but you'll be missing out on the naturally sweet, wonderfully gooey fruity bottom that I love so much.

Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Food Styling by Anna Stockwell

5. Assemble, and bake!

Sprinkle your dry mix evenly over your fruit, then pour the wet mix over everything. Don't stir—the fruit on the bottom is fun! Now put it in a 350°F oven and bake it until the top is golden brown, 30 to 45 minutes, depending on the depth of oatmeal in your baking dish.

Eat it hot, served with milk or yogurt or cream or simply as is. Or let it cool to room temperature, cover your baking dish, and refrigerate. It'll keep in the fridge for at least five days—if you can make it last that long. Reheat individual servings in the microwave, or reheat the whole thing in the oven if you're serving more than one.

Or, my favorite, cut a nice square serving out of the dish and heat it in some butter in a skillet on the stove until it's nicely crisped and warmed through. It's enough to banish thoughts of crawling back into bed.

Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Food Styling by Anna Stockwell