The Southern husband and I are great lovers of oatmeal for dinner. Warm and wonderful, quick and filling, and when we have it for supper we usually jazz it up in a savory way instead of going sweet – our favorite is with some cheddar cheese and a soft-cooked egg. But given the Winterpacolypse that we are currently smack in the middle of, one particularly blustery night I decided the only thing left to so was do was go straight for the dessert-meets-dinner with an apple pie version of oatmeal. Which by the way would be perfectly perfect for breakfast and lunch, too!
Apple pie oatmeal starts with steel cut oats – those are the hard little oat nuggets that cook up into hearty, nutty wonderfulness as opposed to the more typical rolled oats variety. Steel cut oats make all the difference in this recipe – think of them as playing the part of the pie crust!
And obviously you have apples.
I use one apple per serving to make sure everyone gets their fair, generous share of apple deliciousness. I like Macintosh apples for this recipe because they cook up to just the right amount of tender and crisp. No need to peel them – just slice them into nice bite-sized pieces.
I cook everything up with just enough cinnamon sugar to give it a spicy sweetness, and then I usually drizzle a little warm maple syrup and cream on top, which is what I have in the recipe below. But I have to tell you what I did the last time I made this, just because it is so dang wonderful. My friend Jen, who knows how much I love all things cooking and all things Vermont, gave me one of these a little while ago…
That, my friend, is a maple cube. As in, a sold little block of maple syrup in hard cube form. I took my handy microplane grater and grated a nice little pile of maple shavings on the top of each dish of oatmeal, where it promptly melted into a puddle of maple heaven.
I’m already thinking of a million other things I can grate my maple cube over. A cup of tea. A hunk of salty parmesan cheese. Into my open mouth. Etc. But in the meantime, it was the perfect finishing touch to the apple pie oatmeal.
Can you say, lick the bowl?
Stay warm out there my friends!
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Apple Pie Oatmeal
Prep Time: 5 minutes- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 35 minutes
Yield: 4 servings 1x
Category: Breakfast
Method: Stovetop
Cuisine: American
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Pin RecipeDescription
Apples meet steel cut oatmeal in this recipe that introduces two of my favorite foods – oatmeal and apple pie!
Ingredients
- 1 cup steel cut oats
- 4 cups water
- 4 Macintosh apples, cored and cut into bite sized pieces
- 4 tablespoons cinnamon sugar
- Warm maple syrup
- Warm heavy cream
Instructions
- Bring water to a simmer in a heavy deep saucepan. Add oats and cook over medium-low heat for 20 minutes.
- Add apples and cinnamon sugar and stir. Simmer for another 10 minutes until oatmeal is done. Steel cut oatmeal will be slightly chewy – that’s how it’s supposed to be.
- Ladle into warmed bowls, drizzle with a little maple syrup and heavy cream and serve.
Hi there! I’m Kate, and I’m a recipe writer, food photographer and devoted bacon lover. I started Framed Cooks in 2009, and my mission is to create and share family-friendly recipes that make cooking both easy and fun…yes, I said FUN! My kitchen is my happy place, and I want yours to be that place too. Let’s cook together!
I’m relatively new to steel cut oatmeal – I bought the quick cooking kind because I have two small children, a full-time job, and a husband. Read: NO EXTRA TIME! :-) So anyway – this gives me a wonderful idea for my breakfast oatmeal – I’ve been making mine with a bit of brown sugar and cinnamon. Yawn. Super excited for breakfast tomorrow. Thanks!!
I remember those days! Whatever works for you is the right way to go and hang in there – it’s almost the weekend! :)
So happy to have found this yummy recipe! My daughter and I eat a LOT of oatmeal…we love it. We are going apple picking this weekend and THIS yumminess is going to happen Monday morning! Oh…and I need to find that maple cube! How fun!
We did our apple picking about 3 weeks ago and we are still working our way through the scrumptious apples (lots of applesauce happening in my kitchen!). Have fun!!