I really can’t get enough of baked oatmeal. It’s great for meal prepping my breakfast, it’s hearty, delicious, and there are endless flavor possibilities. This time I made use of a couple ingredients that have been lingering in my kitchen: frozen bananas and unsweetened shredded coconut. I tossed the two together with the usual ingredients, subbed rich coconut milk for the dairy milk, and ended up with an ultra rich, lightly sweet Banana Coconut Baked Oatmeal. This one is a winner, friends!
What Is Baked Oatmeal?
If you’ve never tried baked oatmeal before, let me explain a little bit what this wonderful breakfast dish is like. This sweet breakfast casserole is not crunchy. It’s basically oats baked in a custard. It is just like bread pudding, except you’re baking oats in the sweet custard mixture instead of chunks of bread. It’s soft, moist, and rich.
Save Those Leftover Bananas!
Banana bread is the most common use for leftover bananas, but they’re also great for making baked oatmeal! Mashed banana keeps the baked oatmeal soft, moist, and sweet. So, anytime you have leftover bananas, go ahead and peel them and then toss the peeled bananas into a freezer bag and save them until you have enough to make a batch of this banana coconut baked oatmeal (or banana bread baked oatmeal).
What Kind of Coconut Milk is Best?
Make sure that you get canned coconut milk for this recipe, not the type of coconut milk that is sold in a carton as an alternative to dairy milk. Canned coconut milk is much thicker and has a much stronger coconut flavor than the boxed dairy milk substitute. I used Goya brand, but Thai Kitchen brand is also a great choice. If the coconut milk you buy has a large chunk of solid coconut cream on top, make sure to whisk that into the liquid part well before trying to stir it into the baked oatmeal mixture.
Banana Coconut Baked Oatmeal
Servings 6Ingredients
- 1.5 cups mashed ripe bananas* ($0.68)
- 1 large egg ($0.27)
- 1/4 cup brown sugar ($0.08)
- 1/2 tsp vanilla ($0.14)
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg ($0.05)
- 1 tsp baking powder ($0.06)
- 1/2 tsp salt ($0.03)
- 1/3 cup unsweetened shredded coconut ($0.31)
- 1 13.5oz. can coconut milk ($2.17)
- 3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats ($0.51)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375ºF. Coat the inside of a 2-3 quart casserole dish with non-stick spray.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the mashed bananas, egg, brown sugar, vanilla, nutmeg, baking powder, salt, and shredded coconut until evenly combined. Add the coconut milk and whisk until smooth again. Add the rolled oats and stir with a spoon until combined.
- Pour the oat mixture into the prepared casserole dish and bake, uncovered, for 45 minutes. Serve warm or refrigerate until ready to eat. Pairs well with cold milk poured over top.
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Notes
Nutrition
Scroll down for the step by step photos!
How to Make Banana Coconut Baked Oatmeal – Step by Step Photos
These are my sad frozen bananas that were getting a bit old. To freeze them I first peel the banana, break it in half (because it fits in the blender easier that way), wrap each half in a fold-top sandwich bag, then store them all in a freezer bag. These were getting quite brown, so I decided to thaw them and use them in this recipe. You need about 1.5 cups mashed bananas, which will be 2-3 larger bananas, or 3-4 smaller bananas. If you have slightly less than 1.5 cups, you can make up the difference with apple sauce or even yogurt.
Preheat the oven to 375ºF. Place the mashed bananas in a large bowl along with one large egg, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1/3 cup unsweetened shredded coconut, 1/2 tsp vanilla extract, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, 1 tsp baking powder, and 1/2 tsp salt. Whisk until the ingredients are evenly combined.
Add one 13.5oz. can of coconut milk and whisk again until smooth.
At that point it will look a little something like this. The color will depend on how dark your bananas were (mine were quite dark).
Add three cups of old-fashioned rolled oats and stir with a spoon until everything is evenly combined. Old-fashioned, or “thick” rolled oats, give the best texture. Quick oats will work, but the overall texture of the final product will be uniform and probably quite a bit more mushy. Steel cut oats won’t work with this recipe because they take longer to cook and require more moisture.
Pour the batter into a 2-3 quart casserole dish (coat with non-stick spray for easy cleanup).
Bake the oatmeal in the fully preheated oven, uncovered, for 45 minutes. After 45 minutes it should be lightly browned on top and slightly spongy in texture.
Spoon the warm Banana Coconut Baked Oatmeal into bowls and serve immediately, or refrigerate until ready to eat. I like to pour cold milk over mine. :)
The shredded coconut gives the oatmeal such a great texture!
Made this with extra coconut, dried cherries and chopped almonds, served it with half and half. Incredibly tasty and great comfort food. Everybody loved it.
This recipe is WONDERFUL and easy. We make ours in a 9in pie pan and then cut it into wedges for the week of breakfasts!
outstanding recipe
This looks so good! Any tips for baking at higher altitude? I’m at almost 6,000 feet elevation
Ah, unfortunately I have no experience cooking at high altitudes. :(
How long can this be stored in the fridge? I want to do this for meal prep tomorrow :)
I usually eat off of it for 4-5 days. :) If I have more than I think I can finish in that time, I freeze it (single serving containers).
I love these baked oatmeal recipes! A question though- what would be the best way to prepare this the night before? Leave it uncooked and bake in the morning? Would the egg get weird? Or would it be better to bake and reheat in the morning, or mix up the ingredients without egg and add that just before baking in the morning?
I don’t think the egg will get weird. :) I like to bake mine and then reheat portions. I find that to be the easiest route. If you do mix and refrigerate overnight before baking, just be aware that you may need to bake slightly longer because the dish and everything will be cold from the fridge when it goes in the oven. I wouldn’t mix everything without the egg because it will be harder to get that egg to be diffuse in the mixture after the oats are in there. It’s best to whisk the egg with just the wet ingredients first.
I’ve been waiting to make this recipe for about a month now. It seemed to take forever for me to have enough ripe bananas. In any case, it was delicious and a bit crunchy with the coconut shreds. I added a few sliced almonds for proteins, but I’m not sure I will next time, as the dish becomes wild with crunchiness.
Thank you so much for these oatmeal bake recipes, they’re really delicious and motivate me to get up in the morning. :)
I just made this and it’s by far my favourite of the baked oat meals on your site (I’ve made almost all of them). So delish!
Same here!
It’s so delicious and creamy, i love it <3
This was so deliciously good! I sprinkled chocolate chips on top and poured milk over it. I will definitely be making this baked oatmeal again. :-)
Yum! Ultimate comfort breakfast food! I just made this and will definitely be making it again. I used 3 large bananas and regular coconut milk (the kind with chunk of coconut oil on top). I didn’t add the extra water but it didn’t need it.
Thanks Beth!
Might be a silly question, but can i have this with milk (like cereal) ?
I like to pour milk over mine. :)
I tried this without the sugar and determined that it probably needed it. Easily fixable though! This was yummy and took care of my freezer bananas.
Delicious! I subbed cinnamon for nutmeg, and the cinnamon was subtle so next time I will increase that. Texture and bake time are right on. Tried one bowl plain, and one with milk poured over it, and the latter is the winner. Used Let’s Do Organic coconut shreds which are really fine texture and you can feel the texture while eating, which didn’t bother me but might not appeal to some. My 15-month old daughter also enjoyed this oatmeal. We polished off about 1/3 of the dish for breakfast! Hoping leftovers reheat well.
when I saw this recipe I just thought. I should prepare this recipe.
this recipe is super flavorful and so easy to prepare.
I have a bag of sweetened coconut in my pantry. How much would you suggest cutting back on the brown sugar so it’s not over-sweet?
Hmm, maybe use about 3 Tbsp? If it’s not sweet enough at the end, you can always drizzle honey or maple syrup over top of each bowl. :)