Chocolate Baked Oatmeal is deceptively decadent yet filling and healthy. This is the perfect start to the day for chocolate lovers with its brownie-batter flavor yet stick-to-your-ribs heartiness. And it’s a dream for meal prep as you can portion it out into individual servings and devour it throughout the week.
Are you stuck in a boring breakfast rut? We totally get that! Our mornings are a repetitive cycle of cereal, frozen waffles, yogurt and the occasional toast with jam on the run.
Mornings are simply too busy for us to put much effort into breakfast. But that’s where this chocolate baked oatmeal recipe comes in handy. Simply stir the ingredients together, dump into a square baking dish then bake for about 30 minutes (plenty of time to get the kids ready in the morning). Plus, you can make baked oatmeal ahead and serve it cold or warm it slightly for those hectic mornings–that’s pretty much every morning if you have young kids like us.
Ingredients That Matter
This is one of those versatile recipes with simple ingredients, plus it can be adapted for dietary needs:
- Rolled Oats. There are few better breakfast ingredients to keep you feeling full than oats. For this recipe we stick with good old fashioned rolled oats. We’ll discuss the health benefits of oats below, but note that you can swap in just about any form of oats you have on hand (but you’ll get best results with regular rolled oats instead of thick-cut, quick or steel cut).
- Cocoa Powder. Much of the chocolate flavor in this recipe comes from cocoa powder. Simply put, cocoa powder is the ground solids of cocoa beans after the cocoa butter is extracted.
- Milk. The milk helps hydrate the oats, giving the baked oatmeal a pleasantly moist texture. We use regular whole milk, but any variation of fat level and even alternative milks will work.
- Maple Syrup. To sweeten our chocolate baked oatmeal we reach for maple syrup. We like to use a natural sweetener whenever possible, plus we live in Vermont and we’re pretty sure there’s some law about using maple syrup instead of other sugars.
- Melted Butter. Here you can use melted coconut oil if you plan to make this vegan (see below) or even a vegetable oil. The fat helps give this chocolate baked oatmeal the right amount of richness.
- Baking Powder. A little baking powder is mixed into to the oats to give our final baked oatmeal a light and fluffy texture. It helps prevent the baked oatmeal from being too dense.
- Eggs. A couple eggs help bind the oats together into a cohesive, sliceable dish. You can swap for two flax eggs if you prefer.
- Vanilla. We know this is a chocolate flavored baked oatmeal, but a little vanilla tastes so good with chocolate. A teaspoon is all you need!
- Chopped Bittersweet Chocolate. Adding some chopped bittersweet chocolate gives the final baked oatmeal little pockets of gooey rich chocolate goodness when warm. Chips work fine, too, but we tend to use bars as chips often have additives to hold their classic chip shape and then don’t melt as well as chopped bars. And using bittersweet chocolate means there’s tons of rich chocolate flavor without being overly sweet.
How to Make Chocolate Baked Oatmeal
This recipe is about as simple as it gets, but there are a few steps to ensure success:
Start by mixing together the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Stir together the oats, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt until well incorporated.
Now stir in the lightly beaten eggs, maple syrup, melted butter and vanilla.
Stir together until the oats are well coated in the wet ingredients. It should look like the image above, almost like an oatmeal cookie dough.
Now it’s time to add the milk. Adding the milk at the end allows the other ingredients to coat the oats well. Stir the mixture together. Now it should like chocolate and oat soup!
Add the mixture to an 8-inch square baking dish (sprayed with cooking spray). Top with the chopped bittersweet chocolate then bake in a 375°F oven until set and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean, 30-40 minutes.
When done it should deceive your family into thinking you made brownies for breakfast (seriously, my family thought I was making brownies, but little did they know it’s actually mostly healthy!). Let it cool for 10 minutes before serving.
A healthy and Hearty Breakfast
Besides the maple syrup and the chocolate topping, there isn’t much in this recipe to feel guilty about. In fact, it’s actually quite healthy.
Oats. You’ll likely feel pretty full after eating a single serving of this chocolate baked oatmeal. That’s because the oats are a rich source of dietary fiber (that’s the nutrient that gives you the full feeling). Plus they are packed with protein, manganese, B vitamins and the soluble fiber beta-glucans, which helps lower cholesterol. Yup, oats have earned their health food status!
Cocoa Powder. You’ll get a good amount of minerals from cocoa powder, too, including iron, zinc, potassium, manganese, magnesium and potassium.
Video: How to make Chocolate Baked Oatmeal
Variations
Do you want to make some dietary tweaks? We have you covered:
To make this recipe vegan: Swap the milk for a dairy-free alternative like almond or oat milk. Use melted coconut oil instead of butter and be sure to use a vegan chocolate. You’ll also want to swap in two flax eggs (2 tablespoons ground flax seeds stirred into 6 tablespoons water and set aside for 5 minutes).
To make this recipe gluten free: This one is pretty simple. Be sure to use gluten-free oats (some oats are processed in facilities that also handle flour, so be sure to buy a package labeled gluten free). Everything else is already gluten free.
No maple syrup? Well, that’s a shame! But, you can swap in equal amounts of light brown sugar or even granulated sugar. Honey and agave work as well, though the flavor may be slightly different. The texture may be slightly different, but it will be plenty sweet!
Storage and Make-Aheads
If you want to make this a day ahead, you absolutely can. We prefer it fresh out of the oven, but it’s quite tasty room temperature or cold.
- You can assemble the recipe and wait to bake it until morning. Just be sure to cover the baking dish with plastic wrap to avoid picking up any unpleasant odors from the refrigerator. We don’t recommend holding it uncooked in the refrigerator for more than one night.
- You can portion leftovers and eat them throughout the week.
- Be sure to store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
- We don’t recommend freezing baked oatmeal, but in a pinch you can. Just be sure to warm it up (we advise against it because it would likely become very dry).
Looking for more breakfast ideas? Try making our Brown Sugar French Toast. Or make our Brown Sugar Simple Syrup and add it to your morning coffee or latte.
PrintRecipe
Chocolate Baked Oatmeal
- Total Time: 45 min.
- Yield: 8-inch baking dish 1x
Description
Chocolate Baked Oatmeal is deceptively decadent yet filling and healthy. This is the perfect start to the day for chocolate lovers with its brownie-batter flavor yet stick-to-your-ribs heartiness. And it’s a dream for meal prep as you can portion it out into individual servings and devour it throughout the week.
Ingredients
- 2 cups rolled oats
- ¼ cup cocoa powder
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- ½ tsp. table salt
- ⅓ cup maple syrup *(½ cup if you like sweeter breakfasts)
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
- 2 Tbsp. melted butter
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1 ¼ cup whole milk
- 2 oz. chopped bittersweet chocolate (about ¼ cup)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F and lightly spray an 8-inch square baking pan with cooking spray.
- Stir together oats, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl until well combined. Add maple syrup, eggs, melted butter and vanilla and stir until the oats are evenly coated in the wet ingredients. Add milk and stir to combine. Transfer to prepared baking pan and sprinkle chopped chocolate on top. Bake until set, firm and a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the middle, 25-35 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes before serving.
Notes
To make this recipe vegan: Swap the milk for a dairy milk alternative like almond or oat (why not?) milk. And use melted coconut oil instead of butter and be sure to use a vegan chocolate. You’ll also want to swap in two flax eggs (2 tablespoons ground flax seeds stirred into 6 tablespoons water and set aside for 5 minutes).
To make this recipe gluten free: This one is pretty simple. Be sure to use gluten-free oats (some oats are processed in facilities that also handle flour, so be sure to buy a package labeled gluten free). Everything else is already gluten free.
No Maple Syrup? Well, that’s a shame! But, you can swap in equal amounts of light brown sugar or even granulated sugar. The texture may be slightly different.Â
If you like a sweeter breakfasts, increase the maple syrup to ½ cup.
- Prep Time: 5 min.
- Cook Time: 30 min.
- Category: Breakfast
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
John Travis
This was so good. I love chocolate flavor. Made it got my family and we devoured it!
Ruthie
This was so easy to make and my entire family loved it! My kids even wanted to have more for dinner! I left out the cocoa powder and added a few extra chocolate chips and it still worked great. Will definitely be making this one over and over!
Adam Dolge
So glad you enjoyed it! My daughters love it!!
MK
This was terrible! Not sweet enough. Wasted quality ingredients to make this!
Adam Dolge
Thank you for leaving a comment and I’m sorry this recipe wasn’t sweet enough for you! Did you use 1/3 cup maple syrup and include the chopped chocolate topping? You inspired me to add a note to the recipe about how to make it sweeter if that’s a preference. Take care!
John S
This worked out as a excellent new breakfast addition. I liked the fact that we had both eggs and oatmeal together in a combination that was very tasty. Leftovers were good the next day too.
Adam Dolge
Thanks for the comment, John! I like eating leftovers with some yogurt and berries!
Vicki Grant
How many servings is the oatmeal
Adam Dolge
Hi Vicki, it makes about 4 cups, which should be good for 4 generous servings. Hope you enjoy it!
Wanda Franklin
will be making this chocolate oatmeal gluten free breakfast soon. sounds yummy!
Adam Dolge
Great! I hope you enjoy it, Wanda!