This Healthy Baked Oatmeal recipe is made with coconut oil and applesauce to lighten it up. It’s a quick and easy breakfast loaded with chocolate chips that can be made ahead and can serve a crowd!
If you love healthy oatmeal recipes, then you’ve got to try my Energy Balls and my Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Bars!
Want to save this recipe?
Enter your email below & we'll send it straight to your inbox! You will also receive other new recipes in your inbox weekly!
Easy Baked Chocolate Chip Oatmeal
Don’t you love healthy recipes that include chocolate? (Clearly, I do!) And nothing goes together like soft oatmeal and chocolate chips.
That’s why this Healthy Baked Oatmeal recipe is the perfect breakfast on the go. I like making this in the beginning of the week, portioning it out into squares, and reheating in the morning to serve warm with almond milk and a scoop of peanut butter. You can also top it with bananas, yogurt, or your favorite berries.
The baked oatmeal comes out crisp along the edges and top, but soft and gooey on the inside. It’s almost like a giant oatmeal chocolate chip cookie, but one that’s made with healthy, wholesome ingredients and should be served at breakfast time! This recipe yields about nine large squares of oatmeal, making it the perfect recipe for meal-prepping or serving the whole family on the weekends.
Baked Oatmeal Ingredients
- Old-Fashioned Oats: Don’t use the instant or steel-cut variety! Instant will turn to mush, and the steel-cut won’t cook through completely.
- Brown Sugar: I prefer using light brown sugar in this baked oatmeal recipe, but dark will work, too, if it’s what you have on-hand.
- Baking Powder: To help it rise a little and not turn out completely flat
- Salt: You always need salt in a sweet dish like this to balance everything out. I prefer kosher, but you can use table salt or sea salt. Just be careful because a little bit goes a long way!
- Cinnamon, Nutmeg, and Cloves: These spices give this oatmeal mega breakfast vibes and also work beautifully with the old-fashioned oats and the chocolate. (Think “oatmeal raisin cookie,” but with chocolate chips instead of raisins and baked to thick, fluffy perfection.
- Eggs: You’ll need two large eggs to help this baked oatmeal recipe rise and to hold everything together.
- Vanilla: As always, opt for pure vanilla extract over the imitation stuff.
- Milk: I prefer using almond milk for this recipe as it’s typically easier on the stomach and can feed a lot of people without worrying about the dairy, but you can use any milk you like.
- Coconut Oil: This keeps the oatmeal from drying out without making it too wet while offering some subtle coconut flavor that works so well with the spices, chocolate, and oats.
- Applesauce: This is one of the ways I lightened up this baked oatmeal recipe — by using apple sauce in place of granulated sugar and heavy oils!
- Chocolate Chips: I like semisweet, but dark chocolate or milk chocolate would also work.
How To Make Baked Chocolate Chip Oatmeal
- Combine the dry ingredients — oats, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves — in a medium-sized bowl. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, mix together the wet ingredients — eggs, vanilla, almond milk, coconut oil and apple sauce.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients until just combined. (Don’t over-mix!) And gently fold in the chocolate chips.
- Pour into the prepared pan, and bake at 350 F for 30-40 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and is set.
- Remove from the oven, and allow it to cool before slicing into nine portions.
- Serve with warm milk, peanut butter, and fresh berries. Enjoy!
How Can I Make Baked Oatmeal Healthy?
- I lightened up this Healthy Baked Oatmeal recipe by substituting coconut oil and apple sauce in place of the butter. I also substituted almond milk in place of full fat milk and reduced the sugar.
- To amp up the health benefits even more, you can add flax seeds, chia seeds or hemp seeds to the oatmeal.
- You can also substitute the chocolate chips for fresh or dried fruit. (Or include those in addition to the chocolate!) Blueberries or strawberries would be awesome in this!
- Drizzle with melted peanut butter, chocolate, or Nutella before serving.
Storage, Freezing, and Reheating Instructions
- Store in an airtight container or plastic at room temperature for up to 4 days.
- Freeze by the square for up to 3 months in an airtight, freezer-safe container or plastic bag. Wrap each slice generously in plastic wrap to make grabbing one whenever needed easy.
- Reheat in the microwave until warmed through, about 1-4 minutes depending on whether it’s at room temperature or frozen.
More Easy Breakfast Recipes To Try
- Flourless Peanut Butter Banana Muffins
- No Bake Chewy Chocolate Chip Granola Bars
- Banana Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Muffins
- Peanut Butter Energy Bites
- Oatmeal Smoothie
- Chocolate Energy Balls
Healthy Baked Oatmeal
Ingredients
- 3 cups old fashioned oats
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- pinch nutmeg
- pinch cloves
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1 cup almond milk
- 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
- 1/2 cup applesauce
- 1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 x 9 pan with non stick cooking spray, set aside.In a medium bowl combine the oats, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves, set aside.
- In a large bowl combine eggs, vanilla, almond milk, coconut oil and apple sauce.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Fold in the chocolate chips.
- Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 30-40 minutes or until the top is golden brown and is set.
- Remove from the oven and allow it to cool before slicing.
Nutrition Information
Did you make this?
I’d love to hear your feedback! Leave a review and make sure to share your pictures on social media! Don’t forget to follow @thechefsavvy.
Heidi
I made these yesterday and they are soo delicious! Will definitely be making then regularly at my house. My kids love them too!
Kelley Simmons
So glad you enjoyed this recipe Heidi! Thanks so much for sharing!
Clare
I have made this recipe every Monday to eat for breakfast during the week since October. It’s now April and somehow I haven’t gotten tired of it! I’ve tried a bunch of baked oatmeal recipes and I love this one because it’s easy to throw together (now takes me less than 15min to make right after waking up on mondays so that feels like an accomplishment), warms up beautifully in the microwave, is filling, tasty, and has the perfect texture. My usual add-ins are chocolate chips and a good handful of shredded coconut (still blends well with the spices, which surprised me at first). I bake in a 9×9 glass dish which means 35min in the oven works every time. The only adjustment I’ve made to this recipe is the order I add ingredients. I’ve found that if you add the melted coconut oil to the liquid ingredients unless you’re super fast at adding the dry ones, the oil cools and hardens at the bottom of the bowl. I mix my dry ingredients together in one bowl and all wet ingredients but the oil in another. When I add the dry to the wet I also add the oil, stir to combine and then add mix-ins. Frozen strawberries and raspberries also work nicely in this!
Thank you for a great recipe, I literally have it memorized at this point since I make it every week and it’s a great way to start my day!!
Kelley Simmons
Hi Clare!
I am so glad to hear that you enjoy this recipe so much!! It means so much to me!
I love the addition of the shredded coconut!
Thanks again!
Kelley
Natalie @ Best Blenders
Finally, found the recipe to start my day with the right and healthy breakfast. Thanks for sharing it!
Gwen
I have made a similar version of this. I have added apple to mine. Love it. Since I like chocolate so much I still sprinkle chocolate chips on top before baking. But I try to do it sparingly, so that I get a taste of chocolate in each bite, but not a lot of it. My two favourite fruits to add are apples and/or blueberries. I have been known to substitute 1/2 of the regular oil with applesauce or yogurt, and have used 2% milk, coconut milk, almond milk. This is one recipe that adapts very Weill.
Kelley Simmons
Sounds delicious with apples and blueberries!
Sherrill
What could you substitute instead of the coconut oil?
Kelley Simmons
You could add canola or vegetable oil in place of the coconut oil or melted butter. Thanks and enjoy!
Eve Naumoff
I added 1/4 cup shredded coconut and some walnuts.
Roxy
I used Greek yogurt instead of applesauce and added blueberries. It was delicious!! A great way to eat oatmeal if you hate it the usual way!!! 10/10