Have you ever wondered if you can use water instead of milk in baked oatmeal?
A reader recently mentioned to me that they had used water instead of milk in one of my baked oatmeal recipes.
I have made my baked oatmeal with coconut milk many times for my daughter who eats dairy free, but I had never thought to use just water in place of the milk.
Right now many of use are trying to stretch the ingredients that we have on hand. We are either trying to avoid going to the grocery store or we are trying to save money. For a lot of us it is probably a little bit of both.
I currently have milk, but I am trying to make it last as long as possible. When I made baked oatmeal earlier this week I decided to try the readers suggestion of using water in place of milk.
I used water in place of milk in both my Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Baked Oatmeal and in my Baked Banana Oatmeal and it worked great!
It was slightly less creamy and might have changed the taste just a little bit, but not enough for my family to really notice much of a difference.
If I have plenty of milk I will probably make the original versions, but using water is great for when I am low on milk or when I want to make a dairy free option.
Thank you so much to the reader who suggested I try water in place of milk!
I have only tried it with those two recipes, but I think it would probably work for my Triple Berry Baked Oatmeal, Pumpkin Baked Oatmeal, Raspberry Baked Oatmeal, Mounds Bar Baked Oatmeal, and any other of my baked oatmeal recipes.
If you are looking for ways to make your milk stretch, or need to eat dairy free, try using water in place of the milk in baked oatmeal
Now for some other baked oatmeal tips!
Can you freeze baked oatmeal?
Yes, baked oatmeal freezes great! I did a whole post several years ago on freezer baked oatmeal. I shared how I freeze it and lots of other baked oatmeal tips.
Can I use old fashioned oats in place of quick oats in baked oatmeal?
I prefer to use quick oats so most of my baked oatmeal recipes use quick oats, but regular old fashioned oats work too.
The texture is slightly different, but it works fine. I you only have old fashioned oats, or you prefer them, you can use them in place of the quick oats.
Can I make baked oatmeal ahead?
Yes, baked oatmeal is a great make ahead breakfast!
Baked oatmeal reheats well. When I make baked oatmeal I almost always make two pans so that we can eat it for several days.
Can baked oatmeal be made into muffin?
Yes, baked oatmeal can be cooking in a muffin pan. My banana oatmeal breakfast muffins are simply my banana baked oatmeal made in a muffin pan.
All you have to do is take your favorite baked oatmeal recipe, scoop it into a muffin pan, and bake for 15-18 minutes or until done.
Do you love baked oatmeal as much as my family does? What tips do you have for making baked oatmeal?
Great! That hadn’t even occurred to me but would certainly be helpful now. I’ve also considered using buttermilk. I have some frozen that would be great to use up and would stretch my milk farther. I usually make a double batch, so I may try doing half buttermilk or water and half milk this time, just to avoid changing it so much that my family decides not to eat it! (That happened once when I tried sugar-free chocolate chips – oops!)
Buttermilk might change the taste a little bit, but I think it would work fine especially if you only use half buttermilk. If you try it I would love to hear how it works. And I have tried sugar free and healthier chocolate and my family agrees it is not worth it. 🙂
Glad to know it’s not just mine that balk at the “healthy chocolate”, haha. No one complained this morning about it. I ended up using 1.25 cups milk and .75 cups buttermilk (in a double batch). For a while now I’ve been using 2 bananas and .25 cup of pureed pumpkin per batch, since I think you mentioned somewhere that each banana should be around .25 cups-worth (no one noticed the switch 😉 ). I also only had 3 bananas, but they were all fairly large, so I used something like .5-.75 cup of pumpkin, but it felt too dry so I actually added a bit more milk until the consistency looked closer to normal. I tossed in a few Tbsp of unsweetened shredded coconut and a few tsp of chia seeds (also normal for me). All in, I had no idea if all the changes would go unnoticed but everyone ate just fine this morning! Thanks!
Good to know during the trying times. That hadn’t occurred to me. I do sub in applesauce in all of your baked oatmeal recipes I have tried. I also sub in fruit flavored yogurt in the blueberry version instead of the vanilla. Blueberry works, and so does peach.(grin) Thank you for the baked oatmeal recipes. I’ve tried several and they were all winners. I do spoil my hubby usually and add glaze on top, like the cinnamon roll version, but without the cinnamon, just powdered sugar and water.
I love that you change up my baked oatmeal recipes. Peach yogurt in the blueberry version would be really good! And I love the glaze on the cinnamon roll version too. It makes the baked oatmeal even better! Thanks for sharing how you make it.