Baked Gingerbread Oatmeal

Jeff the Chef

This easy recipe for Baked Gingerbread Oatmeal, with its caramelized cardamom topping, transforms old-fashioned oats into part of a breakfast fit for the holidays – just add coffee.

Baked Gingerbread Oatmeal
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Baked Gingerbread Oatmeal

Recipe by Make It Like a Man!Course: BreakfastDifficulty: Easy
Makes

9

servings

Mix the dry into the wet, bake, and broil the topping.

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup (packed) dark brown sugar

  • 2 cups old-fashioned oats

  • 1 tsp baking powder

  • 1/4 tsp salt

  • 1¼ tsp ground ginger

  • 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

  • 1/8 tso ground cloves

  • 1/8 tsp ground allspice

  • 2 cups milk

  • 4 Tbs butter, melted and cooled, plus more for greasing the pan

  • 2½ Tbs molasses

  • 2 eggs

  • 1/2 cup raisins

  • 1/4 cup crystalized ginger, finely chopped

  • 1/2 tsp cardamom

  • Powdered sugar for dusting, optional

Directions

  • Grease an 8″x8″ glass baking pan. Preheat the oven to 375°F.
  • Place the sugar into a medium mixing bowl. Then, remove and reserve 1/3-cup of it. Add remaining dry ingredients to the mixing bowl and whisk. Make sure you’ve broken up the brown sugar; if you haven’t, use you fingers to do so. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients until well mixed, 200 strokes. Pour the dry into the wet and stir. Thoroughly stir in the raisins and crystalized ginger. Pour into the baking dish and gently – so as not to disturb the butter you greased the pan with – spread out the oats.
  • Bake until the sides are beginning to set and show signs of browning, but the center giggles quite a bit when you tap the side of the pan, 25 minutes. (See next step.) Remove from oven.
  • While the oats are baking, place the reserved sugar into the bowl used for the dry ingredients. Add cardamom. Use a whisk to break up the sugar, then give it 100 strokes to mix well. Set aside.
  • Sprinkle cadamom sugar evenly over top of oatmeal. Using the back of a spoon, gently spread sugar into a thin layer across entire surface of oatmeal. Return to oven; bake just until sugar darkens (melts) in the center of the pan, 3 minutes. Set oven to broil. Broil 3 inches from heat until sugar bubbles and browns slightly, 1½ minutes. (Watch carefully to prevent burning, which, if it happens, will happen quickly. It may be necessary to turn baking dish each time you check it.) To serve, spoon into small bowls, or cut into squares and serve on small plates. (Dust individual servings with powdered sugar.)

Notes

  • Replace 3/4-cup of the milk with buttermilk.
  • I often like to substitute old-fashioned sorghum for molasses.
"Baked Gingerbread Oatmeal," from Make It Like a Man!

This baked oatmeal is quite wonderful. It’s gorgeous and smells like the best gingersnap you’ve ever had. It tastes like a gingerbread cookie and a bread pudding invited a spice cake into a thruple. You’ll almost – almost but not quite – feel like you’re having dessert for breakfast. I recommend that you eat it pleasantly warm or stone cold from the fridge (yes, it’s really good that way) – but not hot.

Some people like to eat a baked oatmeal in a bowl, with a bit of milk or cream and/or maple syrup. When it’s warm, I don’t care for either of the options. The maple seemed just plainly wrong for the gingerbread, and the dairy too easily maked the flavors.

However, when it’s cold, whipped cream is fantastic with it, if you make the cream extra sweet. So is spiced cranberry sauce: it overpowers the gingerbread flavor somewhat, but in a consonant kind of way that I really like.

To sum it all up, I tried not to eat this whole batch of oatmeal when it was fresh, and that was difficult. I ate half of the leftovers rewarmed, plain. The other half I ate cold, either plain or with whip or cran. I loved it all five ways.

Social Learning

How to know when it’s baked: this recipe is designed to have oats fully set (no more jiggle, even at the center) precicely at the end of the topping process. If the jiggle disappears in the middle of the topping process, or disappears just moments before you start the topping process, it’s still going to be OK: the oats won’t seem overbaked.

I’m always careful to use plastic utensils to either cut of scoop servings out of a metal baking pan, out of concern for scratching up the pan. Still, I’ve managed on occasion to scratch up a metal pan with plastic utensils. Note also that if you store this baked gingerbread oatmeal in a metal pan, it may over time stain the metal. You could cure both of these problems by using a glass baking pan, but you’re not supposed to broil in one.

The Backstory

There are two types of families in this world: those who stay in hotels when they come to visit, and those who stay with you. When I was a kid, mine was the latter. Nowadays, it’s somewhere in between. Nonetheless, it is probable that over the holidays that I’ll either be someone’s overnight guest, or have overnight guests of my own. These baked oats are perfect for that scenario. They’re quite easy to toss together, and yet they taste like they were a huge fuss. Pair the oats with coffee and fresh fruit. Get up early and sneak out of the house to get some pastries from you favorite bakery, and now this breakfast is something you guests will rave about for a year. Or two.

If you wanted to make it easy on your morning, you could mix the wet and dry ingredients the night before and store them separately. I’ve heard that you can actually mix them together, refrigerate them overnight, and bake them in the morning. I’m sure this would affect baking time and probably texture; I haven’t tried it.

I would like to find a way to bake some apples into something like this. I’m surely not the first to consider that.

Last but certainly not least, I have to credit Savory Moments for inspiring me to make this oatmeal. I stumbled onto a recipe there that looked so wonderful, I literally stopped what I was doing and started working on a recipe of my own. Thanks, Savory Moments!

"Baked Gingerbread Oatmeal," from Make It Like a Man!
Baked Gingerbread Oatmeal

Credit for images on this page: Make It Like a Man!, unless otherwise indicated. Thank you, Kesor. This content was not solicited by anyone, nor was it written in exchange for anything. References: Epicurious, Quaker Oats, Southern Living. Of interest: Bon Apetit. Make It Like a Man! has been ranked by Feedspot as #14 in the Top 30 Men’s Cooking Blogs!

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41 thoughts on “Baked Gingerbread Oatmeal”

  3. I am going to have to make this for breakfast sometime next week. My husband would LOVE this.
    This recipe just screams winter holiday!!

    Reply

  4. Believe it or not, biut literally just a few days ago I decided to make a baked Gingerbread oatmeal (Was also thinking of Eggnog one) for our holiday breakfasts. Great minds! 🙂
    It looks absolutely phenomenal, and indeed this idea is so much better than I’ve imagined. Loving the use of the crystalized ginger and especially the cardamom caramelized layer. Really great job!

    Reply

  8. Great recipe and a perfect way to get some oats in my diet. Looks so moist – almost like a “healthy” coffee cake. The cardamon sugar sounds wonderful as a finishing touch 🙂

    Reply

  9. I do a baked oatmeal with steel cut oats: the sort that rests in the refrigerator overnight. It’s quite good, but this one sounds even better. For one thing, I grew up with a Swedish grandmother whose cardamom cakes and cardamom yeast rolls were fabulous. As soon as I saw ‘cardamom’ here. I was sold. The Gulf coast is going sub-freezing for a few days, and I think this will warm us right up. I’ll check the ingredients tomorrow, and get ready to bake.
    shoreacres recently posted…Tongued With Fire ~ A Solstice Remembrance

    Reply

    • I love steel-cut oats. I’ll have to try that. We’re supposed to get a good deal of snow where I live, so I’ve got plans to make a panful of these oats in the next couple of days, for those cold, snowy mornings!

      Reply

  11. I love this, Jeff — it’s the perfect confluence of breakfast and dessert. Once we get back to having company, this will make an appearance on our table! Wishing you both wonder-filled holidays!

    Reply

  12. Jeff this wouldn’t last long in our house, these are all the flavours we love, ginger add that cardamom topping wow. I can’t wait to make this after the holidays, and it’s so versatile, great for dessert as well. I love that it giggles in the middle, much better than jiggles, ha, ha.

    Reply

    • Oops, that was an excellent type-o. I think I’ll leave it in. I hope you have wonderful holidays!

      Reply

  13. Now this is my kinda breakfast during the holidays! Well, this and a big plate of biscuits and sausage gravy. Maybe add some juice and fresh fruit, too. And potentially some leftover Christmas cookies. That’s how we do it. Oh, yeah…and coffee! Looks amazing, Jeff. I would love this! Happy holidays and safe travels if you hit the road, my friend!
    David @ Spiced recently posted…Creamy Mushroom Gnocchi Soup

    Reply

    • Hey David. I’ve already hit the road, and just in time – a blizzard is coming that is so severe, they’re saying you can only venture out onto the roads in case of emergency. But I’ve got all the fixings for this baked oatmeal. Now, if you would just quickly bring over all that other stuff before the flakes start falling, we’ll be set!

      Reply

  17. Loved the previous Gingerbread cheesecake Jeff, and I love this baked gingerbread oatmeal too! At this time of year I make a lots of baked oatmeal dishes but again I’ve never made a baked gingerbread oatmeal. Can’t wait to try it! Hope you have an amazing Christmas and New Year!
    Neil recently posted…Quick Easy Balsamic Asparagus Recipe

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  20. I’ve probably said this before here, but cardamom is my absolute favorite spice. I love it in sweet and savory dishes. What a perfect fit it is for this recipe, with is indeed fit for the holidays. (Love that!) 🙂 ~Valentina

    Reply
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