Individual baked oatmeal cups
I’m down one child for the next six weeks since I dropped Daughter #1 off far, far away in upstate NY for a summer college program. Â There were some tears before I left. Â I know how most of you think, but no, those tears were not mine. Â I love my daughter to pieces, but hear me out. Â If you were 16 years old and had the opportunity to study architecture at one the best universities in the US, on one of the most beautiful campuses, meeting interesting kids from all over the world, without your parents telling you what to wear or eat or when to go to bed, would you CRY? Â Hell-oooooo? Â I am so excited for her! Â I think back to when I was 16, and I would have given my right eye to get the heck out of sleepy Stony Brook, Long Island, where I am from and do what she’s doing. Â Cry tears of JOY maybe. Â I guess Manhattan Beach, California is much more fun than Stony Brook when you’re 16. Â But just so you’re not worried about her, a mere 24 hours later there were no more sad texts, only pictures of cute boys, usually South American.
Ironically, I am with Mr. Picky visiting my family in Stony Brook, the place I lived for basically my entire life, but the place that I thought was the most boring town on the face of the planet. Â It is about 60 miles away from New York City, arguably the most exciting place on the planet, although I didn’t get there too much, and especially not without my parents. Â Stony Brook is absolutely darling, but there was not much going on here when I was a kid, except for a few small beaches which are also very quiet, a lovely (and quiet) duck pond, a carriage house museum (totally true) and a cute ice cream shop. Â So of course when it was time for college, I needed excitement! Â A big city! Â So I left for Philadelphia where I attended college and then moved to Los Angeles after graduation. Â Many, many years later, after much excitement, I cannot believe I am saying this, but I so look forward to my visits to Stony Brook.
Have I mentioned how quiet it is here? Â I woke up in the middle of the night last night because I didn’t hear anything. Â How weird is that? Â Perfect silence. Â Actually, it’s AMAZING. Â I am thrilled beyond words to be in a quiet, sleepy town for the week where I don’t have to battle traffic or stressed out motorists or all the noise that goes with them. Â And the fresh air is a huge bonus.
Mr. Picky and I are having a ball with my parents and my sisters and their kids. Â I am always appointed head of the kitchen when I’m here which is fine as long as someone else is head of dishwashing. Â Honestly, I don’t mind cooking for a crowd every day. Â It’s actually easier than cooking for two. Â And my sisters’ kids which range in age from 3-7 are all fantastic eaters which makes my life very easy.
I heard that all the kids liked the baked berry oatmeal recipe I posted a few months ago, so I thought I would do something a little different and bake the mixture in a muffin tin to make individual portions. Â Also, my sister’s son leaves early for lacrosse camp every day, so it’s nice for him to be able to take a couple for the road. Â I made the oat mixture with a few nuts, but then used different “toppings” for each cup just to mix it up a bit. Â I used blueberries, strawberries & Â mini-chocolate chips, and mini-chocolate chips & walnuts. Â The kids all gravitated towards the ones with chocolate, naturally and I’ll admit, a few of them were wondering why there were no chocolate chips throughout the cups and only on top. Â Next time I’ll throw a few into the mixture as well. Â The oatmeal cups were popular enough that they were finished off in the afternoon after the kids worked up an appetite after a few hours in the pool.
Keep in mind, these oatmeal cups are the equivalent to having a portable mini-bowl of oatmeal. Â They don’t have the light, tender texture of a muffin, so don’t expect that. Â I ate two blueberry ones and felt very satisfied until lunchtime. Â Remember that oats have a lot of fiber, both soluble and insoluble, making you feel full for a good long time. Â But I do find that I need to have some good fat with my oats, so the addition of walnuts was perfect for me and also added some nice crunch. Â No doubt you and I will have some fun with this recipe and find a way to add apples or pumpkin in the fall or bananas, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Â My summer just got started and I plan to make it go as slowly as possible.
update 7.3.13:  I just made these again, but with my own muffin pan which only yielded 9 cups instead of the 12 I originally wrote.  I think my mom’s pan is smaller than mine, which is standard, so I updated the recipe to 9 oatmeal cups which I think is more accurate.
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- 1 teaspoon aluminum-free baking powder
- ½ teaspoon fine grain sea salt
- 2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats (look for labeled gluten-free oats to make this a gluten-free recipe) - Do NOT use steel cut oats
- ¼ cup walnuts, almonds or pecans, chopped + extra for topping (optional)
- ⅓ cup 100% pure maple syrup (I like ¼ cup is just fine, but my family preferred ⅓ cup)
- 1 ½ cups milk of choice (cow, almond, hemp, etc.)
- 1 large egg or ½ cup mashed banana or ½ cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1 ½ Tablespoons melted unsalted butter or unrefined coconut oil
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- toppings: fresh blueberries, sliced fresh strawberries, chopped nuts, mini-chocolate chips
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line a standard muffin pan with 9 unbleached parchment liners.
- Combine baking powder, salt, oats and nuts in a large bowl.
- In a separate medium bowl whisk together maple syrup, milk, egg, melted butter and vanilla (or combine them in a blender.)
- Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture and stir to combine. You can certainly add chocolate chips or fruit to this mixture if you want all the cups to be the same.
- Ladle the oat mixture into the prepared muffin tin, filling each cup about ¾ full. Sprinkle any additional nuts, berries or chocolate chips over the tops of each.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes or until set and wet ingredients are fully absorbed. Eat warm or at room temperature. Leftovers can be stored in the refrigerator and eaten straight away or warmed in a toaster oven at 350 until heated through.
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51 Comments
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Made these this morning and loved them! Left the remaining ones on the counter all day. Are the leftovers ok to eat or should they have been put in the refrigerator immediately?
I’ve left them out all day and eaten them, but they’ll stay longer in the fridge.
Made these this morning and we all loved them. Left the extras out on the counter all day before realizing they should be refrigerated. Do you think the leftovers are still ok
to eat?
What can I sub for oil and syrup ? Can I use stevia for syrup and applesauce or banana for oil? Tia!
I think you could definitely try! They might not be as firm, but that’s ok. For the stevia, just keep in mind 1 teaspoon of stevia is equivalent to 1 cup sugar, but that may not be true for every brand and can also vary from liquid drops to powder. I would check on the stevia manufacturer’s site for a proper conversion. 🙂
Made these last night with the little girl. Wanted the vegan husband to share, so we used oat milk and black bananas, so I cut way back on the maple syrup since the bananas were so sweet. I used a six-cup silicone muffin pan and 2 ramekins, so the cooking time was longer than I expected, closer to 30 minutes. They are a HUGE hit. The big girl had one before summer cross country this morning and it was a great pre-run mini-meal.
Yay!
These sound very yummy and easy to make. Can you make them into minis? If so, will the cook time be different?
I don’t see why you couldn’t make them into minis, but yes the cook time will be much less. I would take a peek after about 10 minutes to be safe. Cook until set and the center is springy.
I have wanted to try these for awhile now and i made them this morning. I actually got 11 of them and there is only 1 left. There is only 3 of us here today. 🙂 They were just sweet enough. I made the chocolate chip and the blueberry since we just went blueberry picking this week. The kids loved them. I am trying to work on the breakfast rotation a bit so this will be perfect for when we start back to school and for snacks. Thank you as always.
SO glad you enjoyed them. I have even eaten them out of the fridge cold and I thought they were great.
I made these again and sent them with Kaydee on her vacation along with a bag of your whole grain waffles. These were perfect to travel with. Our other daughter Haylee loved these too and kept the rest. She asked for the recipe too. For four of them, I mashed up some banana added it to the muffin tin and stirred it around a little. I put the chocolate chips and few more walnuts on top. Oh my, so good! I’m always in with banana and chocolate. 🙂 Thank you again!
Chocolate and banana are the best!! These muffins are so great for travel. Thank you for the reminder!
These have been a firm favourite for a while, but just realised that I’m out of maple syrup. Keeping it vegan, I want to substitute sugar instead if possible. How much can I use?
You can sub an equal amount of sugar for the maple. I would use brown sugar, if you have it!
What containers would this be
You bake them in a muffin tin lined with parchment liners.
Pleasantly surprised at how delicious these are! I must have a smaller muffin pan because I got 12. I was wondering if you happened to have any nutrion information on these?
Glad you like them! I don’t have the nutrition info, but there are quite a few sites that can help you calculate that. 🙂
Thank you for the tip! These will definitely become a morning staple in my house! Thank you again for the great recipe.
You’re so welcome! Thanks for leaving a comment. 🙂
has anybody ever frozen these? if so, how were they after being thawed? if not, how long do they last once baked and refrigerated?
i have two toddlers and love easy, quick, healthy breakfasts and snacks that i can make ahead and freeze.
thanks!
I can’t remember if I have frozen these, but I really think they would turn out great!
thanks pamela.
i baked my first batch over the weekend and my family loved them! we ate them so fast i didn’t have a chance to freeze them. the second batch literally just came out of the oven and i do intend to freeze this. i’m sure they’ll be great. thank you for the great recipe!
dana
Wow! This blog looks exactly like my old one!
It’s on a totally different subject but it has pretty much the same page layout and design.
Wonderful choice of colors!
I just did a blog post on fast-food breakfasts and included a link to this recipe. Thank you for your nutritious options.
http://fitness-fittingitin.blogspot.com/2014/02/healthiest-fast-food-breakfasts.html
LOVE these muffins for my kids, but they are starting to get “tired” of them. How would you incorporate pumpkin here?
I bet you could add 1/2 cup of pumpkin puree (maybe even eliminate the egg) and add some pumpkin spices. I’m sure it would be delicious. Look at my post on pumpkin oatmeal for spice measurements: https://pamelasalzman.com/pumpkin-oatmeal-recipe/
My son’s preschool is nut free… Could I substitute sunflower seeds? Or just omit the nuts all together.
Absolutely! Either way it will still be delicious!
Please disregard my last message. I made these at 6am and forgot to add the milk. Made them again (with the milk) and they are delicious!
Ah ha! Thanks for letting me know!
I made these muffins with chocolate chips and they tasted a little dry. I used Bob Mills old Fashioned oats and the applesauce option. I wonder if I used quick oats and the egg option if they would be better. Have you tried any variations that made them more moist?
I’m sorry they turned out dry. It’s possible your oven runs hotter than mine. Next time I would try just cooking them for less time. I always use old fashioned oats when I make these.
Hi Pam – this has been my new work week go-to, ensuring that i get breakfast each morning. i have tried various brands of oats, each resulting with a different baking time and consistency. what is your preferred brand for this recipe?
Oh that’s interesting! I use Bob’s Red Mill gluten-free rolled oats, not the ones labeled extra hearty. Glad this is a good recipe for you!
Can you freeze them?
Sure! (Although if you put strawberries on top, not sure the strawberries would freeze well.)
Do these have the same mushy consistency as a bowl of cooked oatmeal? Or are they more firm?
Good question! No, these are not like cooked oatmeal. These are firm enough to pick them up and take a bite out of. But they’re not like traditional muffins that have that light, spongy texture. These are more dense.
Pamela, I’m obsessed with your recipes and made this one and the chia seed raspberry jam last night! I cannot thank you enough for your delicious and inspirational recipes! I’m recently gluten free and your recipes are so easy to follow not to mention yummy! Thank you again for inspiring healthy eating and my newfound love of baking! 🙂
Yippee! We’ll have fun baking “together” here.
This is the first recipe that I made of yours and they are amazing!! Can’t wait to try your other recipes!
Can’t wait to see what you make! Thanks, Maria!
I LOVE this recipe Pam- thank you! Finally my kids like oatmeal! They are enjoying the chocolate & walnut ones for an afternoon snack and my husband and I are gobbling the blueberry cups for breakfast. Delicious!
Your kids didn’t like oatmeal before this?? How awesome you found the magic recipe!
These are so delicious! My sister and I made these on the 4th and they were a huge hit with my teen age nieces! We loved to spread a little almond butter on them for a great breakfast! Next time I’m doubling the recipe!!!
DELICIOUS!
That’s great!! Doesn’t almond butter make everything better?
Pamela,
This sounds like a great, easy recipe…can’t wait to try it! Saw your Mom at a couple of social happenings, and just yesterday, at Stop ‘N Shop beaming with joy that you’re all together!! Enjoy your stay! Warmest regards to all!
Katherine
Thanks for stopping by the blog, Katherine! My mom is at Stop ‘n Shop every day when I visit! You want to see me, I’m over at Wild by Nature 😉