Are you asking yourself, how do I make fluffy baked oats, why are my baked oats not rising, why can’t I get them to look like a cake? If this sounds like you, you HAVE to read through this guide to making perfect baked oatmeal.
In here, I’m outlining every single tip and trick behind making fluffy baked oats, from the amount of liquid you need, to adding in tons of flavor. I promise all your questions will be answered!
Plus, I’ll include my favorite chocolate chip baked oatmeal recipe below for you to try out!
Tips and Tricks
Oat Flour
This is key. Make sure that the oat flour you are using is finely ground with a consistency that is almost similar to powdered sugar. Most store-bought oat flours will have the right consistency, but if you’re grinding your own oat flour, you will need to grind it for at least 2-3 minutes to make sure it has the right texture. If you have a spice grinder, I recommend using that over a blender, as it’ll get the oats super fine!
Minimal Liquid
This is one of the biggest mistakes most people make when making baked oats, using too much water or milk. I cannot stress enough the importance of using minimal liquid. Ideally, you want to go for a ratio of 1:1, for every 1 cup of oat flour or dry ingredients, use 1 cup of milk. This is so important to get the perfect fluffy and cakey texture that you want in your baked oatmeal.
I want to stress that any time you add additional dry ingredients like cocoa powder or protein powder, you will need to add in equal amounts of plant milk to keep the ratio of 1:1 the same.
Additionally, I recommend using a plant milk, as water tends to make the texture dry and crisp on the top of the oats, rather than fluffy and soft.
Utilize Leaveners
One of the main reasons that your baked oatmeal isn’t rising is because you’re not using leaveners, ie. baking powder and baking soda. If you’ve made any of my baked oats recipe, you’ll see that I use a mixture of both baking powder and baking soda. This is because baking powder provides lift and reacts with heat, while baking soda provides lift and neutralizes any bitter/acidic flavors.
One important note on baking soda is that it needs an acid to react, which is why I always use a quick squeeze of lemon juice, however apple cider vinegar or any type of vinegar will work well!
Add Flavor to the Baked Oats
This is more of a tip rather than a trick, but adding flavor to your baked oatmeal is essential. Otherwise they will be flavorless and dull. Not fun!
Some of my favorite ingredients I use to add flavor are vanilla extract or almond extract, cinnamon, salt, date syrup, coconut sugar, cardamom and pumpkin spice. Just add a few of these extract, spices and/or sweetener into the batter and mix them in to add in tons of flavor!
Baked Oats Batter Consistency
This is a tip I swear by! Once you’ve mixed up all the ingredients, the batter should look like thick waffle batter. If it looks too thin or even too thick, it won’t have that fluffy cake-like texture that you want.
You can add more oat flour if the batter is too thin, and add more milk if the batter is too thick. Ideally, you want the batter to look and feel like waffle batter – thick, creamy and smooth!
Baking Time
One last key step to making the best baked oats is allowing them to bake for at least 20-25 minutes. If you remove them too soon from the oven they will have cooked on the top, but the inside will be mushy and gooey – so not cool!
The Best Baked Oats Recipes
So now that I’ve given away all of my tips and tricks to making the best baked oats, I’ll link a few of my favorite baked oats recipes below. I’ve also put together a complete list of all of my baked oats recipes, in case you want to browse through, click HERE.
If you found this useful or make any of these baked oats recipes, be sure to snap a picture and tag me on Instagram @munchingwithmariyah. I love seeing your photos!
Print
Chocolate Chip Baked Oats
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 1 person 1x
- Category: Breakfast
- Cuisine: American
Description
Oh hey there, want cookies and milk for breakfast? You might be thinking that it’s impossible, but not if you make these Cookies n’ Milk Baked Oats, aka Chocolate Chip Baked Oats. Fluffy, delicious and loaded with tons of gooey chocolate chips, these baked oats are the ultimate breakfast!
Ingredients
- ½ cup Rolled oats, ground into a fine flour ((sub with ½ cup oat flour))
- 1 scoop Vanilla protein powder
- ½ tsp Baking powder
- ¼ tsp Baking soda
- ¼ tsp Ceylon Cinnamon
- ¼ tsp Salt
- ½ cup Cashew milk
- ½ tsp Lemon juice
- ½ tsp Vanilla extract
- 5–6 drops liquid Stevia
- 3 tbsp Chocolate chips
Other
- Cashew milk for topping ((see notes for recipe))
Instructions
- Begin by preheating the oven to 350°F and greasing a ramekin with cooking spray. In a bowl, add the ground oats (or oat flour), protein powder, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Mix well.
- Then pour in the cashew milk, lemon juice, vanilla extract and stevia and whisk well. The batter should look like thick pancake batter. If the batter seems too dry, add in a dash of water. If the batter looks too runny, add in some more oat flour or protein powder. Then, sprinkle in the chocolate chips and mix again.
- Pour the batter into the prepared ramekin and pop in the oven to bake for 20-25 minutes until puffed and golden brown. Pour over a little bit of cold cashew milk and enjoy!
Notes
* Cashew milk recipe linked HERE – only takes 2 minutes to make.
Hi! Love the recipe and the details, but I was wondering if there was a sub for the protein powder or if you could explain its functionality. Also wondering if any amount of lemon extract could sub for the juice. Thank you!
Hi Taylor! Thank you so much for the compliment, appreciate it!
The protein powder is totally optional in the recipe, so no pressure to add it in. If you’re looking for a high-protein sub I would go with 2 tbsp of ground hemp seeds or 2 tbsp almond flour for extra protein. You may need to adjust the amount of cashew milk. Also you can sub out the lemon juice for any type of acid, so apple cider vinegar, white vinegar or use a 1/4 tsp of cream of tartar if you have it. Sorry for the long answer haha, hope that was helpful.
Very helpful! Thank you so much 🙂
I use 6 egg whites to sub out 1 scoop whey protein powder. Also I cut back on the milk about 1-2tbls so the batter stays thick. What works best for me is 3 egg whites and 1/2 scoop protein powder.
Thankyou so much I’ve been doing 15-20 minutes and was wondering if it was my batter that was too thin, this was really helpful ! 🙂
This is exactly the recipe I have been looking for! I have avoided baked oats because their texture was never worth the effort. Thank you for doing all the troubleshooting on making baked oats great so that I don’t have to. This will be a staple in my kitchen from now on!
Aaaah made my day reading this!! Thank you so much!