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Slow cooker apple cinnamon oatmeal is the epitome of Fall. Warm cinnamon and sweet apples will make your house smell absolutely incredible. The best part? Throw the ingredients in your slow cooker before bed and you’ll have the coziest apple cinnamon oatmeal when you wake up!
The Ultimate Fall Cozy Weather Recipe: Apple Cinnamon Oats
This slow cooker apple cinnamon oatmeal pack all the flavors of Fall into a warm, cozy bowl. They’re loaded with all the Fall flavors that you’re accustomed to such as cinnamon, apples, and pecans. I love how easy this comes together. It’s nearly hands-off and you wake up in the morning to the most amazing smell in your house. It’s like having a house full of Bath and Body Works candles.
The best way to utilize this is when you’re having overnight guests or just want to sleep in a bit on the weekend. Everyone wakes up at different times and instead of being concerned about, “what’s for breakfast?” if you have a batch of apple cinnamon oats ready when everyone wakes up, they can serve themselves a bowl with their coffee. It helps the entire household out and you won’t have any hangry guests or anyone rummaging through your pantry for something to tame that hunger!
What You’ll Need:
- Apple – fresh apples! I would go for Fuji, Gala, Honeycrisp, or whatever variety you like. I would stay away from Red Delicious (I think the exterior is too waxy) and Granny Smiths.
- Milk – cow’s milk or dairy-free works!
- Apple Cider – please, NOT apple cider vinegar. Apple cider!! If you can’t find apple cider, you can substitute for apple juice.
- Steel cut oats – I love the texture of steel cut oats and it’s the perfect candidate for an overnight slow cooker oats recipe such as this because it doesn’t get super mushy and steel cut oats typically take longer to cook anyway.
- Brown sugar – dark brown sugar to be exact. I love the depth of flavor the dark brown sugar gives.
- Ground cinnamon – I love the warmth of cinnamon.
- Ground flaxseed – for that extra fiber, ya know?
- All the toppings – nuts, maple syrup, more apples, and do you dare add some whipped cream?!
Recipe Tips and Variations
- Definitely spray the insert of your slow cooker well so you aren’t scrubbing off the sugary browned edges (this is normal) for hours. However, if you do forget and this does happen, allow the insert to soak for a couple hours and use a little Bar Keeper’s Friend or create a paste with baking soda and Dawn dish soap.
- If you don’t have steel cut oats, you can substitute with old-fashioned rolled oats but I would not recommend substituting with quick cook oats. They would cook entirely way too fast and not hold their shape very well. I fear they would be too mushy and gummy.
- On your serving of oatmeal, sprinkle some chia seeds on top for extra fiber and protein.
- Speaking of protein, you could mix in some vanilla protein powder into your personal serving if you need to start the day with extra protein.
difference between steel cut oats, old fashioned oats/rolled oats, and quick cook oats
It comes down to texture, processing, and cooking time.
Steel cut oats are oat groats that have been cut into two or three pieces and they’re relatively unprocessed while old fashioned/rolled oats are made by steaming and rolling the oat groats for faster cooking. Quick cook oats are the same but cut into smaller pieces for even faster cooking.
Storage and Reheating Instructions
Allow leftovers to cool then store in an airtight container and keep in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. To reheat, you’ll want to splash a little liquid (milk or creamer) before reheating in a pot on the stovetop or in a microwave-safe bowl until warmed through. The liquid will help loosen up the gluten that naturally gets thicker when chilled.
Slow Cooker Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal
Equipment
Ingredients
- 3 apples, cored and cut into ½ inch cubes
- 1 ½ cup (366 g) 2% milk
- 1 cup (236 g) apple cider
- ½ cup (119 g) water
- 1 cup (160 g) steel-cut oats, a heaping cup
- 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon, or more if you prefer more
- 1 tablespoon ground flax seed
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- Optional toppings: nuts, dried fruit, bananas
Instructions
- Coat the inside of your crockpot generously with cooking spray. You will NOT want to miss this step cause otherwise you will be standing over the sink scraping the little sucker.
- Add all the ingredients to the crockpot (minus the garnishes), stir, cover, and cook on low for 3-4 hours or high for 1.5-2 hours. Keep on warm until ready to serve. Depending on how long it has been sitting on 'keep warm', you may need to add some liquid to loosen it up.3 apples, 1 1/2 cup (366 g) 2% milk, 1 cup (236 g) apple cider, 1/2 cup (119 g) water, 1 cup (160 g) steel-cut oats, 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar, 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1 tablespoon ground flax seed, 1/4 teaspoon salt
- Serve warm with your desired toppings.Optional toppings: nuts, dried fruit, bananas
Video
Nutrition
Photography by Eat Love Eats
We’re totes on the same wavelength today!
and this pretty much killeth me.
These sound great! Off to check out the recipe. =)
That’s how I organize posts too!
I know I’m having oatmeal for breakfast this morning. =P
I want to be all up in that like white on rice. BADABING! (I’VE LOST IT)
I love oatmeal and this sounds amazing. My crockpot often wakes me up in the middle of the night too with smells of goodness!!
Love doing oatmeal in the crockpot! Mine always get kinda brown around the edges too, but I don’t care–I just stir it in and mix it all together. I have read if you put it in a smaller dish inside of the crockpot, that doesn’t happen. Too much work for me. ;)
I seriously love that you made an apple slow cooker dish! This is insanely perfect. Thanks so much for making this for the party!! :)
Where and how much do you use of all the ingredients for the overnight apple cinnamon oats recipe? Can’t make this without it Rachel?
Hi Beverly, as stated in the post, you click the photo of the apple or click the highlighted text that links to the recipe on Rachel’s blog. Enjoy!
The perfect solution to our fear of leaving the crockpot on while we’re at work! Overnight crockpotting!
The one time I made overnight oats in the crockpot they came out terrible (burned on the sides) and I never tried again. But I think it’s because my old crock was cheap and lacking in settings. I upgraded recently and I think I may have to give this a try!
Mine were slightly burned on the sides but I like them like that cause I like crusty stuff (haha that sounded gross), so maybe try it for 6 hours instead of 7? or do it during the day so you can watch it the first time and then you can determine how many hours it will take you so then you can leave it overnight and not fear burnage :)
If your having a problem with burning just cook on low for 1 or 2 hours before bed then switch to warm setting for the rest of the night. Oats are perfectly cooked with no burning on the sides. Hope this helps!
To prevent crusty/ burned sides when cooking oats in the crock, to put the oatmeal ingredients in a separate glass or ceramic bowl that will fit into the crock and fill the crock with water up to the top edge of the bowl. They will cook overnight beautifully without the sticky burnt mess. Good luck!
I love how you do with the crockpot!
Have you ever made beans from scratch in a crock pot? I’m thinking about putting some chickpeas in there this morning and hope that when I come home, I can make hummus!