It’s been fooooorever since I’ve made baked oatmeal! I’ve been craving that peanut butter and chocolate lately, so instead of making a full blown dessert, I decided to work those flavors into a breakfast-worthy baked oatmeal. This Peanut Butter Brownie Baked Oatmeal is super rich and delicious without being overly sweet. In fact, it only has 1/4 cup brown sugar for the entire dish! The rest of the sweetness comes from mashed bananas, which also keep the baked oatmeal nice and moist. I like to keep my baked oatmeals with just a light kiss of sweetness, so if you’re looking for something more on the dessert level, consider doubling the sugar.
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What is Baked Oatmeal?
If you’re new to the baked oatmeal club, let me say first that the texture is not crunchy like granola (a common misconception when looking at the photos). It’s a moist semi-solid, similar to bread pudding. Baked oatmeal makes a great reheatable breakfast for the week and it even freezes great if you just want a portion once in a while. You can eat it cold, warmed up, or with a splash of milk over top. It’s totally up to you. It does need to be refrigerated after baking, though.
Remember how cocoa puffs would turn the milk in the bottom of your bowl into chocolate milk? This kinda does that. :D Hello childhood!
Can I Substitute the Banana?
While I haven’t tried any substitutes for the banana in this particular recipe, I do make other baked oatmeal recipes with applesauce or yogurt instead. My first choice here would probably be yogurt because the dairy will most likely pair well with the chocolate.
Peanut Butter Brownie Baked Oatmeal
Servings 6Ingredients
- 1.5 cups mashed ripe bananas (about 3 medium bananas) ($0.68)
- 1 large egg ($0.27)
- 1/4 cup natural peanut butter ($0.31)
- 1/4 cup brown sugar ($0.04)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract ($0.28)
- 1/2 tsp salt ($0.02)
- 1 tsp baking powder ($0.06)
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon ($0.05)
- 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder ($0.29)
- 2 cups whole milk ($1.12)
- 3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats* ($0.50)
- 2 Tbsp natural peanut butter (for topping) ($0.15)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375ºF.
- Mash the bananas well, then place them in a large mixing bowl along with the egg, peanut butter, brown sugar, vanilla, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, and cocoa powder. Whisk until the mixture is mostly smooth (there may be small pieces of banana).
- Add the milk to the chocolate banana mixture, and then whisk until smooth again. Add the dry rolled oats and then stir until combined.
- Pour the oat mixture into a 2-3 quart casserole dish coated with non-stick spray. Drizzle the remaining 2 Tbsp peanut butter over the oats and drag a knife through to create swirls. If needed, warm the peanut butter slightly to make it runny enough to drizzle over the oats.
- Bake the oats in the preheated oven for 45 minutes. Serve warm, or refrigerate until ready to eat.
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Notes
Nutrition
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How to Make Peanut Butter Brownie Baked Oatmeal – Step by Step Photos
Begin by preheating the oven to 375ºF. Mash 3 to 4 bananas until you have 1.5 cups of banana mash.
Place the mashed banana in a large mixing bowl along with 1 large egg, 1/4 cup natural peanut butter, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp baking powder, and 1/2 tsp cinnamon. Whisk these ingredients together until they’re fairly smooth.
Add 2 cups whole milk to the mixture and whisk until smooth again. You may have some small chunks of banana and that’s okay.
Finally, stir 3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats into the batter until everything is well combined.
Pour the oat mixture into a 2-3 quart casserole dish coated with non-stick spray. Drizzle 2 Tbsp more natural peanut butter over the oat mixture. You may need to warm the peanut butter to get it runny enough to drizzle.
I like to drizzle it in thin lines going horizontally, then drag a knife in the opposite direction a few times to create subtle swirls. Bake the oatmeal in the preheated oven for 45 minutes.
After 45 minutes the Peanut Butter Brownie Baked Oatmeal will look a little more like this and your house will smell AMAZING. Now you can dig in, or refrigerate it for later.
Baked oatmeal is actually really good both warm AND cold.
But my favorite way to eat it is warmed with cold milk poured over top. :)
I just made this for the first time and it certainly won’t be the last. So good!
This recipe sounds amazing! Have you ever mixed the ingredients together the night before and baked in the morning? Any tips or alterations?
We have not done that and therefore can’t offer guidance. XOXO -Monti
My 10 year old daughter loved helping me mix all the ingredients! Delicious and will be easy to reheat for school mornings!
Love it when the kids can help and even make it themselves!
Hi Beth, I had some trouble with this one! I accidentally left out the vanilla and found the end result didn’t taste much like chocolate or peanut butter or anything really. A warmed up serving was kind of crumbly as well as opposed to more custardy or cakey like the other baked oatmeals. Is that all related to the absence of vanilla or did I do something else wrong? Any advice for ways to “fix” if you accidentally leave out vanilla in recipes like this?
I also used regular peanut butter because it’s all I had. I was ready to not taste the PB as much in the finished prodcut since the recipe says natural PB is best, but I thought it would still turn out otherwise. Thanks for any insight!
p.s. I just remembered, I also used fat-free milk because it’s what I had instead of whole milk. That might have been an issue too?
Hi Priya, Yes, it definitely sounds like something is off. It shouldn’t be anywhere near crumbly. :P Skipping the vanilla wouldn’t have affected the texture, and using fat free milk or regular peanut butter shouldn’t have affected it *that* much. So my only guess is that somehow something else got measured wrong or another ingredient accidentally skipped without you realizing it (it happens to everyone now and then!). The fact that it was crumbly and not custard-like makes me think there was a lot less liquid than there should have been, or perhaps a different type of oats were used? Unfortunately without being there to watch the process it’s hard to say what exactly could have gone wrong. I don’t think there is much you can do in the way of fixing it now, except to maybe add some extra toppings to make it more flavorful!
It works if using vegan milk, like oatmeal milk ?
the quantity of bananas, is a cup and a half ?
yum! I changed a few things just because of dietary preference (oatmilk instead of regular and honey in place of brown sugar). So good! I did forget to drizzle on on the top but I didn’t miss it at all. Thanks for as great recipe
Just made this yesterday, and I’ve eaten it as a night time snack twice and breakfast once. It’s delicious!! I substituted the whole milk for cashew milk and it turned out just fine. It’s really good with a little cashew milk poured on top. I couldn’t get the natural peanut butter to become the right consistency to pour on top. It just kind of crumbed. But still 10 out of 10! I can’t wait to try other oatmeal bakes. I love oatmeal, and baking it is so much easier than having it explode in the microwave. I’m notorious for doing that!
do you know the calorie information for PEANUT BUTTER BROWNIE BAKED OATMEAL?
Thanks,
Greg
You can calculate on myfitnesspal.com :) since it will vary depending on the brand of your ingredients
Decided to try this with my chocolate powdered peanut butter instead of the cocoa powder and regular peanut butter. Just used half a cup of the powdered peanut butter and followed everything else to a T! It was delicious! I did drizzle the 2 tablespoons of natural peanut butter on top. So yummy!
Can you use frozen bananas?
Yes, just thaw and mash, and you’re good to go. :)
Our family has been doing a “tour” of all of the baked oatmeal recipes this winter! Keep up the good work! I had never heard of baked oatmeal until this fall. This one and the pumpkin pie one I have made 2-3 times already. My husband hates oatmeal normally but eats baked oatmeal like you would eat a brownie.
Could I make it without the chocolate? I love peanut butter but I’m not into chocolate for breakfast.
Yep. :)
Do you know the calorie count per serving? Thanks!
Holy smokes. I need this, but I’m allergic to bananas. Any suggestions for substitutes? Thanks!
In some of my other baked oatmeal recipes I use plain yogurt instead! :)
Thank goodness I’m not the only one with a banana allergy
Me too! Thanks for asking. Other banana-things like this I’ve done pumpkin or applesauce. I wonder if that would work here.
Is it ok to use Skippy instead of natural peanut butter?
It will definitely change the flavor. Skippy has a lot more sugar in it and doesn’t have as strong of a peanut flavor.
Tried and tested, kid approved. Thanks for another great tasting and easy recipe. Next time I will double the quantity as it wasn’t enough for a breakfast for my family of 4.
Do you think this could be made in the crock pot casserole cooker? Since it isn’t deep like a regular crock pot, I assume the cook time wouldn’t be long. Thoughts?
Honestly, I’m not sure. I’ve never used one of those before. :)
Well this is delicious!! I just made it for Saturday morning breakfast and it’s perfect; a little decadent but still nutritious!. I used a muffin tin to bake this and ended up with perfect sized oatmeal muffins that baked in 20 minutes. I also forgot the peanut butter topping but spread a little on top after baking and it’s the perfect “frosting”. I’ll be keeping this in our weekend rotation!
How long did you bake them in the muffin tins? That sounds more convenient than storing a baking pan in the fridge.