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These baked steel cut oats taste like pumpkin pie—what better way to start your morning? They’re a healthy breakfast filled with whole grains.
This post was created in partnership with Bob’s Red Mill. All opinions are our own.
Would you believe we’ve never cooked steel cut oats until this recipe? I know, I know. We drink Chemex coffee and eat quinoa and wear Chambray shirts, yet our breakfast game has yet to be revolutionized by steel cut oats. Well, consider us steel cut oat virgins no more, because we’re now fans.
How to make baked steel cut oats
Steel cut oats are nothing like normal rolled oats. In fact, they’re a chewy whole grain like this freaky one. Not what we were expecting. However, when baked up in a custard-y “filling”, they’re absolutely delicious.
Our idea for this recipe was to combine they chewiness of steel cut oats with the velvety, spiced-up goodness of pumpkin pie. Luckily it worked like a charm. After cooling, the oatmeal sets up and can be cut into squares for devouring. It tastes just like a light version of pumpkin pie! And who doesn’t want to eat pumpkin pie for breakfast? It’s also fairly healthy. With a minimal amount of maple syrup as a natural sweetener, it’s a nice gluten-free whole grain option for the morning.
We created this recipe as part of an internet-wide celebration of pumpkin recipes in honor of October! Check out this list of links for friends around the web and their recipes. The recipe was also created in partnership with Bob’s Red Mill, one of our very favorite whole grain companies. We’d love to hear: are you a newbie to steel cut oats? Would you try this recipe? And if you did, what did you think?
Looking for more pumpkin recipes?
Outside of this baked steel cut oats, here are a few of our favorite pumpkin recipes:
- Pumpkin Goat Cheese Baked Gnocchi
- Pumpkin Sage Stuffed Shells
- Pumpkin Pie Mousse Shooters
- Pumpkin Oatmeal
- Gluten-Free Pumpkin Pancakes with Maple Mascarpone
- Easy Pumpkin Hummus
- Pumpkin Frozen Yogurt
- Chewy Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies
- 12 Healthy Pumpkin Recipes
Looking for more breakfast recipes?
And here are a few of our favorite breakfast recipes:
- Healthy Granola Recipe
- Sweet Potato Hash Browns
- Best Fluffy Gluten Free Waffles
- Gluten Free Banana Muffins
- Homemade Acai Bowl
- Vegan Breakfast Ideas
This recipe is…
This pumpkin baked steel cut oats recipe is vegetarian and gluten-free.
Pumpkin Baked Steel Cut Oats
These baked steel cut oats taste like pumpkin pie—what better way to start your morning? They’re a healthy breakfast filled with whole grains.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 60 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
- Yield: 6 to 8 1x
- Category: Breakfast
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 1 egg
- 2 cups milk (or almond milk)
- ⅓ cup maple syrup
- ¾ cup pumpkin puree
- 2 tablespoons melted butter, slightly cooled
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup raw steel cut oats
- ½ cup pecans, chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375ºF.
- Grease a 9 x 9 baking dish.
- In a medium bowl, lightly beat the egg. Whisk it together with the milk, maple syrup, pumpkin puree, melted butter, and vanilla. In a small bowl, mix together the spices, baking powder, and kosher salt. Whisk to combine the spices and baking powder into the wet ingredients, then stir in the raw steel cut oats. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan.
- Cover the pan loosely with foil and bake in the center of the oven for 30 minutes. Uncover the pan and sprinkle with the chopped pecans, then bake an additional 30 minutes until golden brown (60 minutes total).
- Serve hot, scooped into bowls, or let cool completely to room temperature and cut into squares for serving. You also can refrigerate and serve cold, which is our favorite way to eat it!
I have made this recipe regularly for years. My entire family loves it. I double the recipe and bake in a 13 x 9 in dish.
How do I know this is done? Baked for an hour. Cooled a bit and under the top, it’s quite soft. Is it finished?
Yes, this recipe will be soft when finished! It has the texture of pumpkin pie filling.
We love these oats. I make a double batch twice a month or so. I even premix all the dry ingredients and keep them in my pantry ready to go.
I’ve modified the recipe slightly by adding a chopped apple or pear and a handful of raisins or craisins. Due to the extra sweetness of the fruit I halve the maple syrup.
Delicious.
This recipe is so tasty! I doubled it but used an entire can of pumpkin (instead of just 1 1/2 c). It needed to cook an extra 10 minutes, but otherwise I didn’t notice a difference. I also left out the nuts and used 1/2 the amount of maple syrup. Family loved it!
WOW! They really do taste like pumpkin pie!
Thanks so much for this recipe. They are fabulous. I used “flax egg”, soy milk and coconut oil. They were so delicious. I may experiment with cutting back on the syrup a little bit and a tiny bit on the oil so I can feel they are more of a breakfast equivalent rather than a dessert. My go-to steel cut oat breakfast has blueberries, goji berries, cinnamon and ginger with no other added sugar.
So glad you enjoyed!
I made them again with a couple of tweaks to improve nutrition profile and still FABULOUS! This is going to be my quick grab breakfast and pie alternative this winter. :-)
I did TWO flax egg equivalents and cut the coconut oil to 1.5 T (I think I can go to 1 T next time). I did a very shy 1/3 c of maple syrup to cut back the sugar a bit. And I increased the pumpkin to 1 cup. (I always use butternut squash instead of pumpkin in pumpkin recipes.) I added in a couple of extra tablespoons of steel cut oats since there was more liquid volume. I baked about 5 minutes extra. (I am making them in a 7×11 pyrex baking dish since I don’t have a 9×9.)
Can you modify for a muffin tin? Does it just change the bake time?
That should work! The bake time would just depend on the thickness, so may take a few minutes longer.
I really like this oatmeal and have made it several times now. I try to eat less sugar so I use only 2 tablespoons of maple syrup and increased the pumpkin to 1 cup. I like to top it with a generous sprinkle of fresh blueberries before baking it. Its delicious!
Just finished the last piece of this scrumptious breakfast! I wrapped up the cold squares and take to work. I did toast the oats first in the butter and then mixed everything up and let soak a few hours before baking. I might try it with grated apple or apple sauce sometime. Thanks for this recipe!
This turned out great! I couldn’t resist tasting it while still warm but I’m looking forward to trying it cold in the morning. Do you know the nutritional values for 1/8 serving?
I added the info to the recipe card!
This was very good; not sure I would bother making steel cut oats any other way now that I’ve tried them baked! What a great meal prep breakfast. I used an 8×8 pan, subbed flax egg and coconut oil to make it vegan, and added a handful of shredded coconut. Cut into six servings; topping with a splash of almond milk, peanut butter, raisins and 1/2 sliced banana for breakfast and it’s quite filling!