Apple Baked Oatmeal

This Apple Baked Oatmeal is the perfect fall breakfast. It’s full of healthy, plant-based ingredients, lots of syrupy fall apples, and absolutely no oil, butter, or sugar. Get a dish of this vegan oatmeal in your oven ASAP and prepare for your kitchen to smell like autumn!

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Apples, oats, and cinnamon. A classic, delicious, and comforting combination! Is there anything better than warm oatmeal and a hot cup of tea on a crisp fall morning?

This baked oatmeal is chewy, subtly sweet, and satisfying! It includes all the classic flavors of baked oatmeal and omits the oil, butter, eggs, and refined sugar. In fact, this recipe relies only on wholesome, plant-based ingredients you can feel good about eating and serving to your family.

This recipe is perfect for making ahead, since baked oatmeal stores and reheats well. It’s also equally delicious cold when the fall weather is unseasonably warm. What are you waiting for? Whip up a batch of this healthy oatmeal today!

(Don’t have apples on hand? Try out this simple Instant Pot Spiced Oatmeal instead.)

What’s Special About this Apple Baked Oatmeal?

There are so many ways to make baked oatmeal. This extra healthy, vegan version relies on flax and applesauce to bind everything together, apples and applesauce to sweeten, and nuts and apple chunks for texture.

For this apple oatmeal, we’ll be using apples in three different forms: chunks, slices, and applesauce (image 1). The best part of this recipe, though, is the unique way we’re using the apple slices.

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Basically, you’ll add sliced apples to the bottom of your baking dish (image 2), par-bake them for a few minutes, and then add the oatmeal mixture on top.

The apple slices on the bottom become soft, syrupy, and luscious, while your baked oatmeal on top becomes chewy, beautifully browned, and a bit crispy (image 3). This combination of textures is fabulous.

About the Ingredients

This baked oatmeal is simple and satisfying. It’s made with a handful of wholesome, easy-to-find ingredients that you probably have in your pantry already. Here’s what you’ll need:

• Rolled Oats: A hearty, inexpensive pantry staple. Look for rolled or old-fashioned oats for this recipe and, for best results, do not substitute another type. To keep this recipe gluten-free, choose certified gluten-free oats.
• Sweet Red Apples: Since there’s no sugar added to this recipe, find the sweetest, ripest apples possible. Gala or Fuji apples are good options.
• Unsweetened Applesauce: Adds moisture to this baked oatmeal and replaces the oil/butter/baking powder you typically find in baked oatmeal.
• Flax Eggs: A simple combination of ground flax and water, it gels up and helps everything bind together.
• Soy Milk and Apple Cider Vinegar: This combination makes vegan buttermilk. The ACV curdles the soy milk and gives this recipe a tangy flavor.
  • Tips: Not all types of non-dairy milk will curdle, so I recommend sticking to soy milk if possible. If you don’t have apple cider vinegar on hand, white vinegar or lemon juice will also work well.
• Chopped Nuts: Chopped nuts make this oatmeal extra satisfying, and provide additional texture. I recommend walnuts or pecans, because they scream fall to me, but use whichever nuts you prefer.
• Ceylon Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Vanilla Extract, and Salt: A classic combination that is just plain delicious. (I recommend Ceylon Cinnamon because it has more health benefits, but you may use the type you have on hand.)

How to Make Baked Oatmeal

This baked oatmeal has quickly become a favorite in our home. Though it has a few more steps than I typically like ;), the steps are actually really easy. The instructions are also laid out so that you can get as much multi-tasking done as possible AND keep your time spent in the kitchen to a minimum.

In a nutshell, here’s what you’ll do to get this Apple Baked Oatmeal on your table:

1. Preheat your oven. 
2. Make flax eggs. This is easy–just combine ground flax and water.
3. Make vegan buttermilk. It sounds fancy, but it’s just soy milk and apple cider vinegar.
4. Slice 1 red apple, add the slices to the bottom of your baking dish, then bake in the oven for 10 minutes.
5. In the meantime, chop up another apple (this is “apple” baked oatmeal, after all). Then combine all remaining ingredients so you have a thick oat mixture.
6. Remove your partially baked apples from the oven and spread your oat mixture on top of them.
7. Return your dish to the oven and bake until the top of your oatmeal is browned and a bit crispy. Done!

How to Top Your Baked Oatmeal

With this recipe, you can feel confident that you’re getting plenty of nutrition to start your day! In fact, this recipe checks a lot of healthy boxes: whole grains, fruit, nuts, flax, and spices.

I typically eat this Apple Baked Oatmeal as-is, and find it to be delicious, warm, and comforting. If you want to add a little extra pizzazz, try out the following.

(Optional) Topping Ideas:

• A bit of date syrup/sugar
• Additional fresh or dried fruit (on top or on the side)
• A drizzle of raw nut butter
• A few chopped dates
• A few additional nuts
• An extra spoonful of applesauce
• Non-dairy milk of your choosing

How to Store & Reheat

This baked oatmeal is a perfect make-ahead breakfast. It’s inexpensive, makes a few servings, and is easily reheated for breakfasts throughout the week. It’s also equally delicious cold out of the fridge, as a healthy afternoon snack!

To store, slice your cooled oatmeal and place it in well-sealed glass containers. Stored tightly, leftover baked oatmeal will keep well for at least 5 days in the fridge. To reheat, microwave lightly until warmed through.

I hope that this Apple Baked Oatmeal gives you all the fall feels AND makes your week a little easier!

The Background and Science Behind These Ingredients

• Buy organic oats (and avoid these kinds) to reduce your intake of glyphosate, a probable carcinogen.
• A very thorough look at nuts and seeds. This write-up includes reasons to embrace nuts and seeds and addresses some of the ways prior studies haven’t provided the full picture.
• Learn more about the myriad benefits of ground flaxseeds and start incorporating them into your daily diet.
• I recommend Ceylon cinnamon in this recipe. Take a look at this comparison of Ceylon cinnamon and cassia cinnamon to find out why.
• Whole grains have been shown to help prevent type 2 diabetes and reduce the risk of colorectal cancer.

What do you think?

Thanks so much for stopping by! If you make this recipe, then please leave a comment and rating. I would love to hear what you think and how it worked out for you!

Don’t forget to check out my other breakfast recipes as well!