Cranberry Baked Oatmeal is a delightful breakfast for the holiday season: tart cranberries top a sweet baked oatmeal, flavored with your favorite holiday spices of cinnamon, vanilla and clove. This cranberry baked oatmeal recipe is easy to prepare, festive, and a healthy breakfast or snack option to keep on hand for busy days. Look forward to your breakfast with a sweet and filling dish like this cranberry baked oatmeal.
What is baked oatmeal? What does this one taste like?
Baked oatmeal offers the comfort of a warm bowl of oatmeal, but with the ease and convenience of baking a cake to make multiple servings. I first started making baked oatmeal for this exact reason: I love warm oatmeal, but I didn’t want to make it every morning (let’s face it, stirring oatmeal on the stove is not the most fun or practical for a daily breakfast). Sure, you can get those packages of instant oatmeal with flavors, but if you’re anything like me, those don’t really keep me satisfied. This baked oatmeal is bulked up with other healthy ingredients to make this dish super satisfying, as well as delicious. This cranberry baked oatmeal is a combination of tart and sweet; the topping of this baked oatmeal has a similar flavor to cranberry juice, and when mixed with the sweet baked oats, creates a sweet and tart balance of flavors. I love eating my baked oatmeal with a side of plain non fat Greek yogurt. I typically eat it this way out of a bowl, and take little bits of each component on the spoon. It’s so delicious and filling! 
What you’ll need to make this cranberry baked oatmeal
- bananas
- unsweetened applesauce
- sugar
- cinnamon
- cloves
- kosher salt
- baking powder
- old fashioned oats
- unsweetened almond or cashew milk, or skim milk
- fresh cranberries
- vanilla extract
- cornstarch
- water
- pecans
Substitution suggestions:
- If you don’t like or are allergic to bananas, add more unsweetened applesauce (approximately 1 cup is equivalent to two bananas).
- If you are diabetic or do not want to use real sugar, you can use sugar replacements.
- You can omit the nuts, or use a different kind of nut.
How to make cranberry baked oatmeal
Making the cranberry topping
Add the fresh cranberries to a saucepan with the sugar, vanilla extract, and cinnamon. Combine the corn starch with another tablespoon of water to form a “slurry.” Add the slurry to the cranberries, and then put the saucepan on medium to medium-high heat. Cook the berries for 10 minutes or so, or until the berries are cooked down, broken down, and resemble a compote or jam consistency. The blueberries should be thick and jammy, not watery. Keep cooking them if they are too watery. Once the cranberries are cooked down, set the pan aside to cool while you prepare the other ingredients.
Making the baked oats
Preheat the oven to 375F. Grab a baking dish or casserole dish (I use this one) and spray it with non-stick cooking spray. In a mixing bowl, mash the bananas and add the applesauce. Next, add in the baking powder, salt, cinnamon, cloves, extract, and sugar. Once those ingredients are combined, add the milk and fold in the oats. Pour this mixture into the greased baking dish. Then, top with the cranberry mixture and the pecans (optional). Bake for 35 minutes. 
Cranberry Baked Oatmeal
Equipment
- baking dish, casserole dish, pie plate
- mixing bowl
- small sauce pan
Ingredients
Cranberry Topping
- 12 oz cranberries, fresh
- 1 tsp corn starch
- 1.5 tbsp sugar
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 oz pecans
Baked Oats
- 2 bananas, overripe
- 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 2 tbsp maple syrup
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp cloves
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt
- 1 cup almond milk, unsweetened, or cashew milk or skim
- 1.5 cups old fashioned oats
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375F.
- Pour the cranberries into the small sauce pan with the sugar, the cinnamon, the water, and the vanilla extract, and turn the heat on to medium.
- Combine the corn starch with another tablespoon of water to form a slurry, then add it to the berries.
- Cook the cranberries for 10 minutes, or until they are broken down into a compote-jam texture. Set aside.
- Spray a small baking dish or casserole with cooking spray. I used an 8.5" x 11" 2.5qt casserole dish for this.
- Add the bananas to the bottom of a mixing bowl, and mash them with a fork.
- Add the applesauce, maple syrup, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, cloves, and extract and stir to combine.
- Add the milk. Whisk together.
- Add the oats. Fold in.
- Pour the mixture evenly into the baking dish.
- Add the cranberry topping to the top of the oatmeal, in an even layer.
- Top with the pecans.
- Bake at 375 for 35-40 minutes or until set up.
- Allow this bake to sit and cool for about 10 minutes until cutting, this will allow it to firm up.
Notes
- 6 points
Nutrition
You might also enjoy these fruit baked oatmeal recipes: Blueberry Baked Oatmeal Dark Chocolate Cherry Baked Oatmeal Tropical Fruit Baked Oatmeal Raspberry White Chocolate Baked Oatmeal
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Yummy! Every one of Steph’s recipes that I have made has been wonderful! This one is tart which I love. I used 1 cup of unsweetened applesauce instead of the bananas which made for a “soupy” mixture. I added 1/2 cup more of the oats to make the mixture more substantial for baking. I could have used less milk but I didn’t know my batter would be so runny since I didn’t use bananas. I added an extra 5 minutes of baking time as well. My bake came out great!
Does this need to be refrigerated?
yes. store covered in the fridge 🙂
Can this be made ahead of time. Am expecting guests and like to cook in advance. If so, how long ahead of time can this be made and remain fresh!
The first time I made it I used the lemon juice. It was so tart I had to scrape off all the cranberries to eat it. The second time I used water in place of the lemon juice. Absolutely delicious!!
thank you for your feedback! I have eliminated the lemon from the recipe based on your suggestion!
Had so many frozen cranberries to use. This was a perfect recipe to use a whole bag of them. Like one other reviewer I added 2 cups oatmeal as it seemed very liquid with 1.5, but I think it was due to me using frozen bananas I had saved that were very ripe, and when thawed they were more liquidy then soft. I did use homemade unsweetened apple sauce too as directed. It baked up wonderfully. Like that it isnt too sweet also. I used monk fruit for sweetener in this. Husband and I both liked it and would make it again. And I would try the 1.5 cup oatmeal next time. Want to try your other flavors of baked oatmeal too. Good formula.
This is so good! Can’t wait to try another one!
This is so good! I can’t wait to try the other versions!
I made this using thinned out 0% Greek yogurt since I was out of almond milk. Love the slightly sweet/tart combination. Also a nice way to use up leftover cranberries. Delicious!
Mine turned out great! I was wondering, though: the recipe calls for 1/4c water. It says to add another tablespoon for the slurry, but didn’t mention when to add the 1/4c water. Does that go in with the cranberries? That’s what I did since I was worried about the berries sticking to the bottom of the pot. I let it boil to the right thickness, and t still turned out great, but I was getting confused. Thanks, Steph!
I made this recipe the way it was written the first time and didn’t like the cranberry mixture just laying on top – texture was off and it was a soggy mess. I made it again, omitted the corn starch in the cranberry mixture, used fresh squeezed orange juice instead of the water and mixed the pecans into the cranberry sauce. It thickened nicely. I set it aside. I then made the oatmeal base as written except I increased the amount of oatmeal to 3.75 cups. I stirred in the cranberry mixture into the bananas with the other liquids before adding the oatmeal last. I baked it at 350 degrees for 40 minutes and it is absolutely delicious this way! It’s now my favorite baked oats and very seasonally appropriate!!