Baked Oatmeal for a Crowd

This morning there were eleven people in our house: us five, my sister and her husband, their two boys, and my parents, who drove up for Thanksgiving and stayed the night. Air mattresses in the living room. Somebody's dog in the hallway. And a line of hungry people in the kitchen by 7:30, not one of whom wanted leftover turkey for breakfast.

Pancakes for eleven means someone stands at the griddle for an hour and eats last, cold. That someone is always me. So years ago I switched to baked oatmeal. I stir it together the night before, put it in the oven when the first kid wakes up, and forty minutes later everyone eats at the same time. I even got to sit down today.

Why baked oatmeal works for a crowd

• It's cheap. Oats are one of the best values at Aldi.
• It can be mixed the night before and baked in the morning.
• It holds well, so late sleepers (my brother-in-law) still get a warm piece.
• It's filling. One square keeps the kids from asking for snacks until lunch, which on a holiday is a small miracle.
• Leftovers reheat beautifully for weekday breakfasts.

Basic Baked Oatmeal (one 9x13 pan, serves 10 to 12)

Ingredients (about $6.10 total)

• 6 cups old-fashioned oats ($1.30)
• 1 cup brown sugar ($0.45)
• 1 tbsp baking powder ($0.10)
• 2 tsp cinnamon ($0.15)
• 1 tsp salt
• 4 eggs ($0.95)
• 3 cups milk ($0.60)
• 1/2 cup melted butter ($0.90)
• 2 tsp vanilla ($0.35)
• 2 cups fruit: fresh or frozen blueberries, chopped apples, or a mix ($1.30)

Steps

1. In a large bowl, mix oats, brown sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.
2. In another bowl, whisk eggs, milk, melted butter, and vanilla.
3. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir well. Fold in fruit.
4. Spread in a greased 9x13 pan. Cover and refrigerate overnight, or bake right away.
5. Bake at 350°F for 40 to 45 minutes (a few minutes longer if it went straight from the fridge) until the center is set and the edges are golden.
6. Let it rest 10 minutes before cutting into squares.

Notes

• Make ahead: Mixing it the night before lets the oats soak, which makes the texture softer and more cake-like. I actually prefer it this way.
• Milk: Any kind works. I've used half water and half milk when we were low, and nobody noticed.
• Less sugar: You can cut the brown sugar to 2/3 cup, especially with sweet fruit. Then let people drizzle maple syrup on top.
• Egg-free: My nephew can't have eggs. I've swapped in two mashed bananas plus 1/4 cup extra milk for his portion baked in a loaf pan. It's softer but good.

Our favorite variations

Once you have the base recipe, you can change the fruit and spices with whatever is on hand. These are the ones that get requested at our house:

• Apple cinnamon: 2 chopped apples plus an extra teaspoon of cinnamon. Perfect in the fall when apples are cheap at the orchard stand.
• Pumpkin: Replace 1 cup of milk with a cup of canned pumpkin and add 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice. This is what we had this morning, since I had a half can left from yesterday's pie.
• Peanut butter banana: Two mashed ripe bananas plus 1/2 cup peanut butter whisked into the wet ingredients. Owen's favorite.
• Cranberry orange: A cup of fresh or frozen cranberries, a little orange zest, and extra sugar. A great way to use up the other half of that bag of cranberries.
• Chocolate chip: Rosie would like me to add that chocolate chips count as fruit. They do not, but a half cup on top on birthdays is allowed.

Serving it to a crowd

I set the pan on the counter with a stack of bowls and a few toppings: a jug of milk for pouring over it, a jar of maple syrup, a tub of vanilla yogurt, and whatever fruit is left. People serve themselves. The kids like pouring cold milk over the warm squares, which is apparently a thing in Mike's family too.

If you're feeding more than twelve, bake two pans. It's cheaper and easier than doubling everything else on a breakfast menu.

What's left over

We had four squares left this morning, which I wrapped individually and put in the freezer. On a busy school morning, thirty seconds in the microwave with a splash of milk and it tastes freshly baked. I usually keep a few in there through the winter.

Tomorrow, most of our guests head home, and I suspect I'll be making a second pan anyway. Once the kids know there's baked oatmeal in the world, a bowl of plain cereal feels like a step down.