This is a recipe I thought I would NEVER post on here. Why? Well, because I tried this method several times for Overnight Oatmeal and every time we barely made it through breakfast. In fact, once we ended up eating cereal because the oatmeal was just SO NASTY. Gag attack. It was like glue. You couldn’t fling that stuff off your spoon if you wanted – sorta like trying to get dried boogers off the wall – but, I digress.
I even had a conversation with The Poorganic Life about how we both thought that Overnight Oatmeal was one of the most disgusting dishes ever invented. EVER.
Not only was it completely nasty, but cleaning the crock after breakfast would make a grown man cry for his mommy. Yes, you could use a liner…but I use my crock pot so often that it would be silly for me to invest in liners – I’d have to quit buying toilet paper to afford them.
But then, my friends, I found a different way for cooking oats in the crock pot. It involves using a water bath instead of cooking the oats directly in the crock pot. I found the idea over at Mommy’s Kitchen and I decided to try it for myself using the ingredients I wanted to use.
I found a bowl that fit down inside my largest crock – a 6 quart. The bowl was a 6 cup bowl and it worked perfectly. A little of the liquid dribbled over the side, and you can see that down in the water – but it was a miniscule amount, so I will use this same bowl next time.
You’ll fill the crock with water to about ¾ the way up the side of your nested bowl. Then you put the lid on, walk away, and your breakfast will be ready in 8 hours. Nice!
Please make sure to use steel cut oats for this recipe. Any other type of oat will result in more glue-like oatmeal. And only Willy Olsen likes eating glue.
We like Bob’s Red Mill oats, but I also buy steel cut oats in bulk at a local store. Steel cut oats are whole grain oat groats which have been cut into pieces.
We really enjoyed this for breakfast. I put it in to cook at 10:50pm (I still can’t believe I was up that late…oh wait, I have kids – that’s why) and it was ready at 6:50 in the morning.
But guess what? We weren’t ready to eat. Actually, I was the only one awake at 6:50 on Sunday morning – I like getting up early when I am able. So, I turned the crock OFF and left the oats in there for another hour until we ate.
I served each bowl with individual toppings instead of stirring them in. We each like different stuff on top – Barry likes walnuts and pecans on his oatmeal, and he used honey. I like peanut butter instead of nuts and I use maple syrup to sweeten.
The texture of this oatmeal is more like traditional cooked old fashioned oats on the stovetop. I normally like the bite of steel cut oats, but I did like this dish even though there wasn’t any “bite” left after 8 hours.
Crock Pot Steel Cut Oats
- 1 cup steel cut oats
- 3 ½ cups water
- 1 cup whole milk or almond milk
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 tablespoons butter
- Toppings: peanut butter, nuts, honey, maple syrup, dried fruit, fresh fruit
- 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 oats, water, milk, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla 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 photo above for example).
- Cover and cook on low for 8 hours.
- Add butter and let melt. Stir.
- Add remaining toppings now or serve by individual bowl.
Yield: 4-5 servings
Hi Stacy. The equivalent of your oats in Ireland or the UK would be Pinhead Oatmeal. Hope this helps your readers this side of the Atlantic Ocean. Love your website especially the Crock recipes and Essential Oil formulas. Valerie
Thank you so much for that information! 🙂
Could I add protein powder to this? Would that make it an E, S, or what? Also, could I have with pecans on top? New to THM! (Don’t even have my book yet!)
All that depends on what kind and how much you use.
I thought oatmeal was always an E
I make mine in the crock all the time. But I do it during the day for 3 hours in high. I also add a bit of extra liquid then after 3 hours turn it off and throw in some skinny b mix I make myself. The chia in it absorbs the extra water and somehow makes cleaning the crockpot easier. Then I package it up and freeze it for breakfast all week. I do put in a small pat of butter and some salt. Then I put whatever topping I want that day when I reheat it. It took me awhile to get this just how I like it. But it works for me.
I just love chia!
Anyone tried leaving the crockpot on warm instead of low? What are the results?
I have not tried this.
why water bath
Keeps it from sticking to the crock and getting all pasty.
This looks great and I cant wait to try it . . . I am thinking breakfast in the morning 🙂 I am new to THM so hopefully this is not a silly question….if I want to keep the butter would that make it an S instead of an E?
Crossover. 🙂
Tried this recipe last night and cut the amounts in half as it’s just me. Worked beautifully…a definite keeper!! I added a T of ‘good’ peanut butter and half a sliced banana. Awesome.
Because I live alone, I cut the ingredients in half. I was worried that I should adjust the cooking time somehow, but at 8 hours, the resulting oats came out great. Thanks for enduring the process of trial and error that led to this fine recipe!
I do steel cut oats in my mini slow cooker, first spraying it heavily with butter flavored cooking spray. I let it cook on low overnight (almost 9 hours) and there is a bit of crusting, which adds to the texture nicely, but the crock is not hard to clean at all. I just run hot water and dish soap into it and let it soak for 1/2 hr. or so. There are only the 2 of us, so I cut recipes in half (1/2 cup oats to 2 cups milk or milk substitute, 1/2 T. butter, 1 T. brown sugar, 1/4 t. cinnamon and 1/8 t. nutmeg). Sometimes I add a small cut-up apple or banana. Always comes out good!
I just love apple in my oats!
I was wondering if greasing the pan with butter is what would help. I also wonder if the crock pot isn’t full when cooked if it effects it. I’m wanting a small crock just for this. I’m making a double batch because a full crock cooks better. but I’d rather cook a smaller batch. maybe 1.5 quarts for my family currently. I do not have a dish to do this so I’m doing directly in the pot now. If it is bad I will do this. Thank you for the food for thought. Either way… I’m giving your ingredients a go.
You are correct, this is the only acceptable slow cooker oatmeal recipe that has worked for me. Thanks for sharing. It was delicious and easy!
WAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
Thanks for this. I make steel cut oats in the crock pot but they are done in 2 hours. That works if I get up on Sunday morning early but this method will work much better on busy school days.
I do that with some things on the weekend too. 🙂
THANK YOU for posting this method! I have wanted to do this but I was wondering about how it would turn out! You have probably saved me one or two attempts by posting this! 🙂
I hope it works out for ya – keep me posted. 🙂
My hubby loves steel cut oats, but I never enjoyed the texture when made on the stovetop. Made these last night in the crock pot with the water bath. Delicious! Very smooth and creamy. I am a fan! Finally, oatmeal I like and don’t have to smother with sugar! Maybe too creamy for some, but I loved it! Next time we will try 7 hours on low and see if they are a bit less creamy. My crock switches to keep warm automatically after the cooking time is done… love that feature! Thanks for the recipe!
Hooray!!! 🙂 I love oatmeal!
Okay, I won’t give up. I put the crock pot on (without a water bath) and expected to have this great oatmeal in the morning. Yes, gummy texture. It was nasty. I’ll try the water bath this time and let you know how it goes. Thanks.
Yep – yuck. We like the water bath much better!
Isn’t that using a lot of electricity?
Using the crock pot? No. They use less energy than your stove or oven. 🙂
http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/try-using-a-crock-pot-for-energy-efficient-cooking.htm
Does steel cut oats look like this?
http://www.healthysupplies.co.uk/coarse-oatmeal-infinity-foods-500g.html
Yes! You got it! 🙂
Yay! I’ve been wondering what they were for ages. 🙂
Well now we’ve all learned something! 🙂
I don’t suppose anyone knows what the equivalent of steel cut oats is in the UK? I just can’t figure out what they would be over here.
They’re also called Irish Oatmeal…do you have that?
Thanks, but no we don’t have Irish Oatmeal. I wonder if it’s coarse oatmeal?
They are the same as cut up oat groats. Don’t know if you have those there.
i have been using this method for several years and love it. I even use the whole oat groats that i get from my grain co-op. They are cheaper by the pound than steel cut oats and the resulting oatmeal has a bit of a ‘bite’ to it, since the grains are bigger to start with. 🙂
Awesome! I have oat groats in the pantry!
I must be strange because I like steel cut oats cooked in the crock-pot (my husband feels like you do though!). I can’t wait to try it this way too. Great idea, thanks for sharing it 🙂
Maybe it will mean you can both eat the same dish! 🙂
Stacy this sounds great, we really like steel cut oats…now to find a bowl that fits my crock pot– the search is on! Another slightly lazier method of making steel cut oats is as follows (what I usually do):
THE NIGHT BEFORE:
~Measure out desired amount of steel cut oats and add water at a 4:1 ratio (ie 1 cup oats, 4 cups water)
~Place oats and water in high sided pot with a lid on and turn stove to high heat
~Allow oats to boil rapidly for 3 min (but not boil over…careful with this one)
Then turn off burner and do not, I repeat DO NOT (under penalty of going without breakfast) lift the lid until morning
THE NEXT MORNING:
~Just give the oats a stir and reheat gently in the pot.
Certainly not as glamorous as a crock pot, but let’s say if you didn’t have a crock pot and you wanted to eat steel cut oats this could work. But really it would be INSANE of you not to have a crock pot because how will you CROCK ON! with Stacy without a crock pot?!? So if you don’t have a crock pot, just ignore this recipe and go out and buy one right now and while you’re at it pick up a copy of CROCK ON! would ya!
Well dude…how smart is THAT?!
What is the difference between steel cut oats and old-fashioned oats? Also, is oatmeal better in the crockpot than on the stove?
Steel cut oats are just whole grain oat groats that are cut into pieces. Rolled oats are oat groats extracted from the hard outer husk and rolled flat.
As for the stovetop/crock pot question, you’ll likely get different answers from everyone. 🙂 I prefer mine baked. 🙂
Oh, I see. Baked? I’ll have to check that out. That sounds better than all of it lol
Yep – my favorite!
I love your baked oatmeal recipe. Make all the time…
Me too! 🙂
Yum!
Thanks!
What a timely post….I litterally just tried Crockpot oatmeal this morning for the first time. Apples, brown sugar, old fashioned oats & water was the recipe. Cooked 6 1/2 hours. I like the apple taste but just can’t get the glue/mush texture down! I am so trying it with steel cut oats! Thank you!
Yep – made that mistake too. You could always use it to put up wallpaper. 😉
Could you use 1% milk instead? I’m on weight watchers and whole milk would be a lot of points!
Sure! It might cut down on the creaminess. 🙂 We’re a full fat household.
OK, so now I’m going to order some steel cut oats the next time the bulk club orders. You talked me into it. 🙂
I have succeeded! *insert evil laugh here*