Set this pot of oatmeal to cook before you go to bed and in the morning, hot breakfast! Just what you need for these winter days. I like this ratio of oats to liquid because even if you want to go to bed at 9:30 p.m. your slow cooker will finish at 4:30, switch itself into warm mode, and the oatmeal will only get better as the clock gets on towards 6, 7, or even 8 a.m. I like this ratio of oats to liquid because it produces a cakey serving very much unlike gloppy, gruel-like oatmeal. Enjoy with toasted nuts, dried cherries or currants, and India Tree dark muscovado sugar, “special sugar” in our house.
I use a 7 quart All-Clad slow cooker which results in a large surface area for the oatmeal to cook, resulting in the cake-like end result. This recipe will work in a smaller unit as well.
Slow Cooker Oatmeal with Apple
makes 2–4 servings, recipe can be doubled
Ingredients
- 2 cups rolled oats thick cut or regular
- 2 cups water
- 1 cup milk dairy or oat milk (Chobani plain)
- 1 apple, peeled, cored and diced Opal is our new favorite
- ½ teaspoon ground coriander or cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon Kosher salt
Instructions
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Put all ingredients in slow cooker and stir to combine. Set on low for 7 hours.
Recipe Notes / Tips
- There's no magic to the ratio of water to milk, if you'd like your oatmeal a bit more rich, up the milk. You can even make it with all water. Just be sure to keep the total liquid constant, e.g. 3 cups for the base recipe.
- To make just a bit more than the base recipe: 2 ½ cups oats, 3 ¾ cups liquid (2¼ cup water, 1½ cups milk good!)
- To double for 6–8 servings: 4 cups oats, 4 cups water, 2 cups milk, 1 or 2 apples, 1 teaspoon each Kosher salt and ground coriander or cinnamon
- You can use this recipe for steel cut or whole groat oats too, just double the liquid. My old recipe for slow cooker whole oats is here and has some different flavor variations.
