Baked Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal

Ingredients

• 2 cups / 162 g Rolled oats
• 1¾ cups / 425 ml Whole milk
• 2 Large eggs
• 2 medium (about 364 g) Apples, cored and cut into ½-inch dice
• ⅓ cup packed Packed brown sugar
• 3 Tbsp Unsalted butter, melted
• 1½ tsp Ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp Vanilla extract
• 1 tsp Baking powder
• ½ tsp Kosher salt
• A pinch, optional Ground nutmeg
• As needed Butter or oil, for the baking dish

Method

1. Heat the oven to 350°F / 175°C. Grease an 8-inch / 20 cm square baking dish. The fat for the dish is extra. It is not part of the measured 3 Tbsp of butter.
2. Core the apples and cut them into ½-inch dice. Leave the skin on. It softens in the oven. A medium apple is about the size of a baseball.
3. In a large bowl, whisk the milk, eggs, melted butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, baking powder, and salt until the sugar is wet and the cinnamon is scattered through the milk. Add the nutmeg only if you want it.
4. Stir in the oats and the diced apples. The oats will look wet. That is what you want. Spread the mixture in the dish and level the top.
5. Bake 35–40 minutes, until the top is golden and the center is set. A knife slipped into the center should not come out with liquid batter. The oats will still look moist. If the top is pale at 35 minutes, bake the extra 5.
6. Rest the pan 10 minutes so the squares hold together. Cut into 6 pieces. It keeps covered in the fridge for a few days. Reheat a piece with a splash of milk so it stays soft.

Nutrition

Kitchen estimate only, not lab-verified. Counted as 1 of 6 pieces from this pan. The fat used to grease the dish, optional nutmeg, and any extra milk or sugar at the table are not in the count. A larger apple, or a different milk, moves the numbers.

Guest diet / allergy swaps

Short kitchen notes for guests. A fuller gluten-free or dairy-free ingredient list, when we have one, is in the panels below.

• Dairy-free

  The dairy is the whole milk and the butter. Use 1¾ cups / 425 ml unsweetened oat milk or soy milk in place of the whole milk, and 3 Tbsp oil or a dairy-free butter-style stick, melted, in place of the butter. Grease the dish with the same oil. Read the oat milk and the butter-style package. Oat milk is not the same as the oats in the pan, and some butter-style sticks add soy. This is a kitchen note, not a dairy-free certification.

• Gluten-free style

  Rolled oats are the grain in this pan, and ordinary oats often share equipment with wheat. Use oats in a box that says gluten-free, and baking powder whose tin does not list wheat. Brown sugar, milk, eggs, apple, butter, cinnamon, and vanilla do not call for wheat. This is a kitchen note, not a gluten-free certification.

• No eggs

  The eggs help the bake set. For each egg, stir 1 Tbsp ground flaxseed with 3 Tbsp water and let it sit 5 minutes, then use that in place of the egg. The squares will be softer. This is a texture note, not a claim about the bake.