Let’s cut to the chase here. Since I figured out how to make oats in the crock pot using a water bath instead of cooking them directly in the crock, it’s made my wheels turn a bit. I’ve been dreaming up all sorts of flavors to make – since I can actually get up and eat them instead of using the mixture as wallpaper paste.
This one came to me because, frankly – I like pumpkin stuff. That should be evident by the amount of recipes I post with it…soooooooooooooooo, being frank again (Frank and Pete must be related), if you don’t like pumpkin, you might want to zone out for the next few months and come back to me in the spring. Or when I run out of pumpkin – which isn’t likely to happen.
These oats, with their fall flavors, pretty much rock. So, let’s make them and cut the chit-chat.
As I’ve told you before, you need a baking dish that will fit down inside your crock. Here’s the one I use. It fits right inside but gives me room around the edges for adding water. This is my 6 quart crock and the bowl is a 10-cup size.
Play around with your biggest crock and find a dish that works. Make sure it’s a BAKING DISH. An exploded, glass shard bowl of oatmeal would not be fun to wake up to.
Second, let’s talk oats. You want steel-cut oatmeal for this one. I’ve tried using rolled oats in the crock overnight and it’s just yucky. Rolled oats create something with a consistency you could scoop out with a spoon, fling it on the wall, and it would stay forever. And become a fossil. And no one wants fossilized oatmeal in their belly. Save the rolled oats for oatmeal on the stove and for granola. You could possibly use quick-cooking steel cut oats, but I haven’t tried that overnight yet.
You can mix everything directly in your bowl in the crock, or you can be a weirdo like me and mix it up in another mixing bowl and pour it in. I’ll be frank again – I’m a messy stirrer. I didn’t want to stir oats down into the sides of my crock.
Also, I just like using my Batter Bowl because it’s my favorite. So there.
This recipe is so easy you’ll smack yourself for not making it sooner. Mix it up, put it in the crock water-bath, turn on the crock and go to bed. Leave it for 8 hours…6 would probably work too, but girl – you need more than 6 hours of sleep. I aim for 7 every night.
You’ll wake up to Thanksgiving in your kitchen. You’ll consider waking your kids at 6am so you can eat breakfast. Then you’ll smack yourself and get over it. Never. Wake. A. Sleeping. Baby. Amen.
I left mine on the “warm” setting because I get up at 5:15am to get blog work done. And no one else in my family feels like getting up at that time. Lame. BUT, I’m kinda glad…because it gives me a few minutes of quiet. When the natives wake up, they don’t believe in quiet. It’s not in their dictionary.
You’ll just scoop it right out of the bowl, easy peasy. See? It’s nice and done and delicious – like a very moist baked oatmeal. ACK!!! I hate that word. It should be expelled from the dictionary.
Look. Someone got a hold of Mama’s camera. And judging by the view of this photo, I’d say it probably wasn’t Barry. Most likely, it was a native whose name starts with ANN and ends with IE. But I’m not naming names. That’s what I get for going to the bathroom, huh?
Look at her, all smiling and innocent. She’s excited about the oatmeal – which both of my kids WOLFED down, by the way. Most likely she was giggling because she knew what I was going to find later. Actually, that picture is much better than the one I once found of my bent-over behind. Life from Annie’s perspective – computers and butts.
But anyway, happy Autumn!!!! Enjoy this oatmeal. I like it served with Greek yogurt and cinnamon “sugar” on top (I use erythritol). The kids like a dab of maple syrup.
Crock Pot Pumpkin Gingerbread Steel Cut Oats
- 1 cup steel cut oats
- 1, 15 ounce can solid packed pumpkin (NOT THE MIX) or 1 ¾ cup pumpkin puree
- 1 ½ cups milk (we use almond milk)
- 1 cup water
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ginger
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ½ cup sugar
- Find a BAKING DISH that is small enough to nestle down inside of your crock pot so that you can create a water-bath.
- Grease dish.
- Combine all ingredients in dish. Stir.
- Place down inside crock.
- Fill crock with water until water comes up the side of the nestled bowl until it’s ¾ the way up the dish (see this post for example).
- Cover and cook on low for 8 hours.
Yield: 5 servings
WOW! I am so excited to have this recipe. Thank you Stacy. It is absolutely delicious. I slept so well last night (maybe aromatherapy) and to wake up to the smell of this oatmeal was heavenly.
Stacy,
do you think rice could be subbed for the steel oats and maybe leave out the pumpkin and this would make rice pudding? I LOVE rice pudding.
I don’t see why not! 🙂
I will let you know!!
Would a tempered glass bowl work? I do not have any baking dishes that would fit in my crock pot.
I have no idea. 🙁
If you have a bowl or dish that is oven safe, it SHOULD work….(disclaimer ;>)
I really must try this. Soon.
A whiff of this in the a.m., and I’ll be up and at ’em!
Thank you for sharing at our TGIF Link Party at A Peek Into My Paradise! Congratulations! Your post will be featured at the TGIF Link Party this week and will be pinned to the TGIF Party Board! I can’t wait to see what you link up this week!
Cathy @ http://apeekintomyparadise.blogspot.com/
Thank you!
Hi Stacy,
I just love your Crock Pot Pumpkin Gingerbread Steel Cut Oats, just delicious! Thank you so much for sharing with Full Plate Thursday. Have a great week and come back soon!
Miz Helen
HI Stacy. Stopping in from Let’s Get Real. Thanks so much for sharing this with our readers. I think everyone should know the wonder that is a crock pot. I love making oats overnight. I haven’t found regular oats to be too bad in the crockpot, but I do love steel cut as well. I’ll have to give your water bath method a try.
Hi! Dropping in from the Juggling Real Food… link party. What a great recipe! I keep saying I’m going to do steel cut out in the crock pot but never seem to get to it. Maybe this weekend… maybe 🙂
This is my first time stopping by via Pin it Thurs. I can’t wait to try this! I have a really hard time chocking down a bowl of oatmeal, so I’m always on the lookout for options I might enjoy. This definitely makes that list!
That looks like one happy little girl eager to eat her breakfast. 🙂 Your oatmeal looks so delicious ~ especially with the pumpkin. I happen to have all the ingredients so I’m going to pop some in the crockpot tonight. And I’ll actually look forward to tomorrow morning! Thanks for the recipe. Do you think you could share this recipe post at our Making Monday link party? We would love it. Thanks. Have a fabulous day. http://www.abrightandbeautifullife.com/making-monday-9/
Thank you for the invitation!
Oh, boy. You had me at “pumpkin gingerbread steal cut oats”.
Hi Stacy ~ Just need confirmation that this would be considered an E meal on THM, right? Just to clarify, not the whole crock pot full, but one serving??
Yep. Oats are always E. Carbs.
This is brilliant Stacy! I just want you to know how much I adore what you do. I also find you so funny and love that you eat healthy on a budget. I hate couponing websites that teach people to eat junk! That’s just not right! Glad to see this oatmeal recipe- it looks amazing!:) Going to give it a whirl today<3
🙂 Thanks!
Dear Dear Stacy! I love your posts- you write like I think and wish I could write! ( ha ha- you may have to read that twice to get my meaning?) Anyway do you think this recipe would work on a stovetop? I have a rectangular crockpot( old Waring brand kind that my Mama always made pot roast in – very sentimentally attached) and my baking dishes don’t fit down inside – if not it maybe time for a new crock pot to come live at my house!
Yes, but you wouldn’t have to cook it for 8 hours. 🙂 More like 30 minutes.
Hi Stacy. Do you find that you retain the flavor of the cinnamon and spices overnight, or do you have to “re-season” in the morning? Great idea for cooking the oats in a bowl in the crock. I make my crock-pot monkey bread that way. Thanks for sharing!
Yes – it’s very flavorful in the morning. 🙂
I have the same no-waking-a-sleeping-baby rule. Unfortunately, I have to wake up my little preschoolers at 2:30-2:45 every day. 🙁 Makes me sad every time!
I’ve never tried oatmeal in a crockpot, because I could anticipate the very issue you mention –library paste that would fossilize on my palate and in my tummy. I have noticed that different store’s brands of “old fashioned” oat cook up quicker than others. I bought a thriftier store’s brand and they cook down much mushier than my old (I moved out of state — not worth the gas money to go there anymore) store’s value brand. Anyway, good oatmeal may be worth the few cents extra per serving to avoid having mush. OK, enough about me and my oatmeal woes…
It’s been a long time since I’ve had steel cut oats and this crock pot version just may be the ticket for a busy mom (who also loves pumpkin and pumpkin spice). I love pumpkin all year and my nearly-six-year old daughter doesn’t care what time of year it is either. It’s a great fruit we call a vegetable.
I have a small crock pot that I use for oatmeal. I read that the larger crock pots don’t work as well for the steel cut oats. Have you tried that? I’m just wondering in the difference of consistency between the crock pot and your water method.
I don’t know…I made it in a 2 quart once and still didn’t like the consistency. I haven’t made it with anything smaller than that. 🙂
I’m not sure which part of this post I liked best, your humor or the recipe itself. I’m a huge oatmeal fan but have never tried it in the Crockpot. Pumpkin totally floats my boat too. Though I live in the tropics, my Midwestern roots run deep. Come September, I gobble down pumpkin as much as I can!
And I store it up for the whole year! Pumpkin in May? Yes please!
This looks amazing! But I have a confession – I don’t own a crockpot. I know, shameful. But mine broke and I haven’t made up my mind what kind I should buy next. Until I make up my mind, do you think this recipe would get the same yummy flavors on the stove top in a dutch oven? Not cooked as long of course, but still nice and slow? The flavors just sound so amazing – I want this now! This recipe may actually force me to choose a crockpot!
I’m sorry – I can’t answer your question…because I can’t get past the fact that YOU DON’T HAVE A CROCK POT!!!!
But yeah, you can probably do it on the stove. But man – get a crock would ya? 🙂
Thank you for anything pumpkin!! 🙂
Do you think this could work with individual baking cups, like ramekins, or would I have to adjust the cooking time? I was thinking it would be a neat way to serve the oatmeal.
Yeah! That would be awesome…I would use the 8 ounce size.
I am SO making this this weekend, I have all the ingredients already! thanks for sharing
Wow! What a happy weekend that will be! 🙂