Baked Oatmeal with Vanilla Cream

Our church has a Saturday seminar about once a quarter and very often we host them at our house (which I love)!

We had our last one a few weeks ago, and I served baked oatmeal for breakfast! 

If you've been scarred by gloppy, questionable oatmeal, put that right out of your mind! Baked oatmeal is a delight...kind of like a thick, soft, oatmeal cookie for breakfast.

It works great as a meal for a group. 

• You can mix it up the night before, so you aren't rushing around like a crazy person in the morning!
• If your guests offer to bring something, you can divvy out toppings. 
• It's super versatile by changing up the toppings! You can do fresh berries, chocolate chips, craisins, raisins, coconut, diced apples, almonds, pecans, walnuts, bananas...really anything your little culinary heart desires! 
• It's easy to make gluten free by using gluten free/not gluten contaminated oats.

Baked Oatmeal

adapted from Savoring the Seasons with Our Best Bites

3 cups rolled oats (old fashioned oats, not quick oats)

3/4 cup brown sugar (I think you could go down to 1/2 cup)

2 teaspoons cinnamon

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoons kosher salt (a little less than 1 teaspoon if using table salt)

1 cup milk

1/2 cup butter, melted (very often I use 1/4 butter and 1/4 cup applesauce)

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 eggs

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Combine oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. In a medium bowl, whisk together milk, butter, vanilla, and eggs. Add your liquid ingredients to your dry ingredients, and whisk to combine.

Pour into an 8x8 or 9x9 inch square baking dish that you've lightly sprayed with nonstick spray. You could even get edgy and use a greased deep 9 inch pie plate.

Bake for 40 minutes or until the top is golden brown, and it is baked through. 

If you mix it up the night before, you can cover it and put it in the refrigerator overnight. When you bake it in the morning, put it in the oven while it preheats. You'll need to add 5-10 minutes to the baking time. 

Serve warm with a generous splash of milk and toppings.

It's also suuuuuper easy to whip up some vanilla cream instead of using regular milk!

Vanilla Cream

just something I threw together

1 part of heavy cream  

3 parts milk (I have 1% milk in my fridge) 

vanilla extract to taste

So, that's like adding 1/4 cup heavy cream to 3/4 cup milk. You can make as much or as little as you need using something around those proportions. I shake in some vanilla extract and stir it up to combine. I taste it and see if I need more vanilla. It's always best to start with less vanilla than you think you'll need and add a little more as needed.

The other nice thing about baked oatmeal is that it reheats well! You can make a big batch at the beginning of the week and have some for breakfast each morning.

And as an extra bonus, everyone at my house likes this!

That's a win in my book!