This dessert-like banana bread baked oatmeal is rich, sweet, hearty, and totally breakfast worthy, thanks to hearty oats and the natural sweetness of bananas. So if you’re tired of using your brown bananas for actual banana bread, you can change things up a bit with this banana bread flavored baked oatmeal, which makes a great make-ahead breakfast meal prep for the week. BONUS: it’s freezer-friendly!
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What is Baked Oatmeal?
If you’re new to the world of baked oatmeal, it’s a wonderfully rich and moist breakfast treat. It’s basically oats baked into a custard. Kind of like bread pudding, but with oats instead of bread. If you think you don’t like oats because they tend to be gooey when boiled with water, try baked oatmeal. It’s soft, moist, and rich, but not at all gooey. Some people also mistakenly think baked oats are crunchy, but they’re not.
Try these other baked oatmeal flavors: Pumpkin Pie Baked Oatmeal, Oatmeal Cookie Baked Oatmeal, or Blueberry Banana Baked Oatmeal.
How to Store the Leftovers
This recipe makes a pretty big batch, so you’ll want to save the leftovers to eat throughout the week. Make sure to refrigerate your baked oatmeal soon after cooking. I like to divide my baked oatmeal into single servings right after baking, then refrigerate them in individual containers. Once chilled, you can keep the baked oatmeal in the refrigerator for about 5 days, or freeze for about 3 months.
How to Serve Banana Bread Baked Oatmeal
Baked oatmeal can be eaten hot OR cold. You can eat it as-is, or pour cold milk over top. And, if you like things a little sweeter, you can drizzle a little maple syrup over top.
Can I Use Steel Cut Oats?
You can not substitute steel cut oats in this recipe without making other changes because steel cut oats require a lot more moisture and a longer cooking time than rolled oats. While it may be possible to tweak it to make it work, I have not tested this method so I can not offer suggestions for that particular substitution.
Banana Bread Baked Oatmeal
Servings 6Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups mashed banana (about 3 bananas) ($0.63)
- 1/3 cup brown sugar ($0.12)
- 2 large eggs ($0.46)
- 1/2 tsp salt ($0.02)
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract ($0.15)
- 1 tsp baking powder ($0.02)
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon ($0.02)
- 1/8 tsp nutmeg ($0.02)
- 2 cups milk ($0.75)
- 2 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats ($0.45)
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts ($0.60)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375ºF. Mash the bananas well with a fork (you'll need 1.5 cups).
- Add the mashed bananas to a large bowl along with the brown sugar, eggs, salt, vanilla, baking powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Whisk until the ingredients are combined.
- Add the milk and whisk until combined again.
- Finally, stir in the rolled oats and chopped walnuts.
- Pour the oat mixture into a 9×9-inch casserole dish and transfer to the preheated oven. Bake for 45 minutes, or until it is golden brown on top and around the edges.
- Serve warm or refrigerate and enjoy cold!
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Equipment
- Liquid Measuring Cup
- Whisk
- Measuring Cups Spoons
Nutrition
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You might also like my Yogurt Banana Bread recipe!
How to Make Banana Bread Baked Oatmeal – Step By Step Photos
Preheat the oven to 375ºF. You’ll need 1.5 cups mashed bananas, which is about three bananas. I like to mash my bananas right in a liquid measuring cup so I can see the volume on the side.
Add the mashed bananas to a large bowl along with ⅓ cup brown sugar, 2 large eggs, ½ tsp salt, ½ tsp vanilla extract, 1 tsp baking powder, ¼ tsp cinnamon, and ⅛ tsp nutmeg. Whisk the ingredients together until they’re evenly combined.
Add 2 cups milk and whisk to combine again. It’s easier to whisk in the milk after the other ingredients have been combined because it causes less splashing.
Finally, stir in 2.5 cups rolled oats and ½ cup chopped walnuts.
Pour the oat mixture into a 9×9-inch casserole dish.
Bake the oatmeal in the preheated 375ºF for 45 minutes, or until it’s golden brown on top and around the edges.
Serve the banana bread baked oatmeal immediately, or divide into six portions and refrigerate for later!
Serve hot or cold, alone or topped with milk.
I love this so much and make it so often I bought one of those Pyrex dishes with a cover specifically for this recipe. Om nom nom. It’s in the oven right now.
This is delicious. Made this a couple mornings ago and my husband and toddler ate it right up. I did sub the whole cane sugar sucanat for the brown sugar and I didn’t miss any sweetness at all. I even pulled out the maple syrup to put on top, but none of us used it because it was perfect as is. I’m gonna have to try the gingerbread one next!
Do you have the calorie count per serving?
Erika – I’ve made quite a few baked oatmeals now and I find that the recipes with some sort of fruit or vegetable puree work best. So, I wouldn’t skip it here. I’ve also made some with yogurt, and those turn out pretty good.
I LOVE baked oatmeal! Can you make it without the banana? (do you need a substitute for texture or will it be fine without the banana? Can’t do fruit right now …)
I prepped it on Sunday evening and popped it in the oven Monday morning. It was so yummy! My husband and son loved it as well. It is very filling and it kept me full all morning. Awesome! I got the request to try it with apple butter and chopped apples. I will keep all of the other measurements the same, just increase cinnamon to 1 – 1 1/2 tsp. and leave out the bananas obviously!
Made this oatmeal this weekend and it is SOOOOO good! I was really surprised because I only eat one type of oatmeal. (Pre-packaged apple-cinnamon oats w/ a very minimal amount of water added so that they’ve sticky and the oats do NOT poof up at all.) But I really enjoyed this. It was sticky enough that the texture doesn’t bother me the way most oatmeal versions do. I wonder if the recipe can be adapted to make an apple cinnamon version…because that would be about right next to heaven as far as I’m concerned.
I baked this in (well sprayed) muffin tins instead of a single glass baking dish, and ended up with baked oatmeal muffins! They are so tasty, and this way, I can just grab one or two in the morning. I baked them for 20 minutes while covered with foil, and another 20 minutes uncovered. They could have gone a little longer, but I like them a bit softer! Thanks for the recipe!
Oh! I also made a spiced apple version that turned out amazing as well, with caramel drizzled over the top. Just peeled and cooked the apples first and put them in instead of the bananas. Added extra cinnamon, a little ginger and cloves.
I made my version of this again today (very similar) but I added 1/4 cup of cocoa powder. Because now and then chocolate and bananas is so good! It turned out beauuuutiful!
I accidentally bought steel-cut oats for this, so I soaked them in water for 8 hours (i.e. overnight or while you’re at work) before following the recipe. Came out fine!
Yes, it baked for about double the prescibed time before it got firm. So had the pumpkin puree one, but not the gingerbread.
Do you think we’d be able to make up a carrot one? I don’t know how I’d got about that one…
Thanks for all your excellent recipes. The oatmeal ones are my favorte since they’re great to bring to work as breakfast.
it is in the oven right now and smells lovely. Love your blog, I am following for a while and cooked several of your recipes so far. All were a huge hit! So I have confidence, this one will be just as satisfying to my crew! Thanks for working so hard for all of us
I eat my oatmeal for about 5-6 days before I call it quits :) I’ve never had any left to freeze, but other people have mentioned that they do so and it works well!
My favorite in the series of “baked oatmeals”! AMAZING!