Crock Pot Steel Cut Oatmeal with Apples, Brown Sugar and Cinnamon - Dairy Free

I never would have thought of making oatmeal in a crockpot until I saw a couple of friends post recipes on Facebook at the same time I had just read a blog post from The Fabulous Beekman Boys about cooking their oatmeal overnight in a crock pot.  Cooking oatmeal in the crock pot sounded interesting to me, so I decided to try it.  I have to admit it has taken me several attempts to get the results I liked.  As I usually do, I take several recipes and adjust them to the perfect one for me.  My kids have food allergies, so for this particular recipe, I substituted soy milk for regular milk, as well as tweaking the amounts of some of the other ingredients.

The other thing I learned was that crock pot temperatures can vary.  One of my crock pots did not properly cook the oatmeal on warm, and low was too high.  Another crock pot I have works relatively well on the warm setting.  However, I find that by cooking on high for the first couple of hours works better for me.  Then before I go to bed, I switch the setting to warm.  I generally start the crockpot around 8:30pm and move to warm around 10:30pm.  At 5:30am when I get up, I check the consistency.  If it is still watery, I put back on high.  If the consistency is too thick, I just add some more water.  (The kids are looking for breakfast around 6:10am).  Depending on your crock pot and what time you want breakfast, you may need to make your own adjustments.  It make take one or two tries to figure out the proper timing to get the consistency you want.  

Below is the recipe I use for our delicious dairy free apple/cinnamon oatmeal.  I like to use the McCann steel cut oats for this oatmeal, it is hardier than regular oats which may get too mushy after cooking overnight. 

Apple-Cinnemon Crock Pot Oatmeal

2-3 apples, cut in small chunks

1/2 cup loosely packed brown sugar

1 rounded teaspoon of cinnamon

1 cup of steel cut oats

3 cups of water

1 1/2 cup of soy milk

Put cut up apples on the bottom of the crockpot.  Sprinkle with cinnamon then top with the brown sugar.

Pour in the cup of oatmeal then gently pour the water and soy milk on top.

Don't stir.

Cook on high for an hour and a half, then lower to the warm setting and let it cook overnight (6-8 hours). If still too watery in the morning, put on high for a few minutes.  If too thick, add a little more water or soy milk.

Please feel free to post any feedback or other tips you may have discover when trying this recipe.

Enjoy!