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Serves a Crowd

Apricot-Almond Baked Oatmeal

by:
March 27, 2021
4.3
20 Ratings
Photo by James Ransom
  • Makes 6 servings
Author Notes

Because winter is coming, and I need my oven on about as much as I need my radiator on. —Erin Jeanne McDowell

Test Kitchen Notes

WHO: Erinmcdowell is Food52’s test kitchen manager and resident pie expert.
WHAT: Your new favorite way to make oatmeal.
HOW: Mix together oats, spices, and chopped apricots and almonds. Put everything in a baking dish and pour over a sweet mixture of milk and cream. Bake your oatmeal while you get ready for the day. Once you’ve showered and dressed, your hot breakfast will be waiting for you.
WHY WE LOVE IT: Oatmeal is nice, but we always crave something to break up all that mush. Enter baked oatmeal: It’s got the creamy softness we love, but with a crust that gives us something to chew on. This one is full of dried fruit and chopped nuts -- fuel for the chilly day ahead (coffee will help, too). —The Editors

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Ingredients
  • 2 1/2 cups oats
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/2 cups whole almonds, roughly chopped
  • 1 1/2 cups dried apricots, roughly chopped
  • 1 1/3 cups whole milk
  • 2/3 cup heavy cream
  • 1/4 cup honey
  • 1/3 cup brown sugar, divided
  • 1 egg
  • 1/4 cup butter, divided (2 tablespoons melted, 2 tablespoons room temperature)
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
Directions
  1. Preheat the oven to 350° F and generously butter a 9 x 9-inch baking dish.
  2. In a large bowl, combine the oats, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, and salt. Stir in the almonds and apricots. Spread the mixture evenly into the prepared baking dish.
  3. In a medium bowl, whisk the milk, cream, honey, 1/4 cup brown sugar, egg, 2 tablespoons melted butter, and vanilla to combine. Pour over the oats. Dollop with remaining butter and sprinkle with remaining brown sugar.
  4. Bake until the oatmeal has absorbed the liquid and is golden brown on the surface, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool slightly before serving.
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I always have three kinds of hot sauce in my purse. I have a soft spot for making people their favorite dessert, especially if it's wrapped in a pastry crust. My newest cookbook, Savory Baking, came out in Fall of 2022 - is full of recipes to translate a love of baking into recipes for breakfast, dinner, and everything in between!

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16 Reviews

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Zeldaz April 10, 2024
What KIND of oats? Steel cut? Quick rolled? Old fashioned rolled? How did san editor not catch this?
steenholcomb August 22, 2022
This was a great recipe and easily adaptable. I love the apricot almond combo of tangy and nutty flavors. Combined with a nice amount of sweetness. I have even adapted the recipe to be dairy free for a friend my changing the milk to coconut milk, and the cream to coconut cream, and added 1/3 cup of almond butter. It was delicious. And you can make it the night before and leave it in the fridge before baking, which makes it great for entertaining. Highly recommend.
Molly May 14, 2021
This was amazing, but really sweet. Loved the texture and would definitely make again with less sugar.
Remy1234 March 27, 2021
Sorry to be a hater, but since so many 5 star reviews were given by folks who didn't even make this, I'm rating at the other end to try to level out the overall score so folks will actually review the comments before making. I've been making a SL baked oatmeal that I love throughout the pandemic and apricots/almonds looked like a nice change from the apples/dried cranberries recipe. As an experienced cook, shame on me to not realize that this recipe actually calls for more fruit/nuts than oatmeal, and roughly chopped almonds were nothing but a serious jaw workout! Another reviewer said it was way too salty. I had the same issue, but it's due to the directions. So, if I were to make this again, which I doubt I'd do, here are the changes that would make this recipe much better - cut the amount of dried fruit and nuts in HALF. Also, instead of whole almonds, I'd probably used toasted slivered almonds. Instead of just pouring the liquid ingredients over the dry, it should all be mixed together thoroughly (that's why it tasted salty). The "dollops" of butter were unnecessary (my butter was unsalted and I think that added to the salty flavor). Finally, I'm a fan of peach/apricot with almond flavoring, so I would probably substitute the vanilla with a smidge of almond extract. Even though my mom brought me up to clean my plate and never waste food, I'm actually throwing the rest out, because my jaws hurt! My hunt for baked oatmeal varieties continues...
Akuna M. December 6, 2020
Delicious! Even though I didn’t have enough almonds, I just used pecans as well. I also lacked the dried apricots and substituted Fresh raspberries and blackberries. It was so good.
Laura February 24, 2020
Man, I just didn't have luck with this. Mine was way too salty...maybe it just didn't get mixed in as well as it should have? No one else had this problem?
Clover88 December 25, 2018
When I’m responsible for a quarterly early morning meeting, I bribe attendees by making this. Delicious, great texture, acceptable to most eaters.
janet V. December 26, 2014
There are so many kinds of oats. What kind did you use to achieve the best results?
Zeldaz April 10, 2024
My question, too. As you haven't had an answer in A DECADE, I don't hold out much hope to ever find out. Sigh.



Deborah R. November 9, 2014
I made this yesterday and, while it was undoubtedly delicious, next time I will radically reduce the amount of sugar and butter, and I think it will taste just as good. It's very decadent and rich and I could only eat a few spoonfuls even though it tasted great. The dried fruit (I used dried blueberries) is sweet enough so next time I think I'll only include the 1/4 cup of honey to the milk/egg mixture and sprinkle a small amount of the brown sugar on top for texture. Likewise, for texture, I will add some specks of butter to the top but omit the melted butter from the liquid mixture. I would make this without cream on a regular morning and save the cream for a special occasion brunch.
Kathryn P. November 4, 2014
Sounds delicious, but would like to cut the calories in the whole milk and cream. Anybody tried substitutes?
Eryn November 4, 2014
Looks delicious! Any suggestions for replacing the whole milk and cream with, say, almond milk, for those with intolerances? Thank you!
Jean November 4, 2014
Sounds yummy. Do steel cut oats work as well?
WhiskyMead November 3, 2014
Hello! This sounds delicious. Wondering how best to make it stretch over the week - would it be to pre-mix the ingredients and bake single servings each morning, or bake the whole thing and simply re-heat?
Deborah R. November 9, 2014
I baked the whole thing yesterday and reheated some in the microwave this morning. It wasn't quite as moist as the oats absorbed even more of the milk/cream in the fridge overnight - but it still tasted good, just a slightly different texture. If I was making it for company, I would want it straight from the oven but was fine reheated just for me :)
Danielle O. November 3, 2014
Hi, can this recipe be made a day before? Does it store well?