Crock Pot Oatmeal

I got the idea for the oatmeal prepared in a crock pot from Mommy's Kitchen as well as the idea for creating the water bath in the crock pot, however, the oatmeal I made was not the same recipe. There are several crock pot oatmeal recipes out there and most all call for steel cut oats (because of the longer cooking time). However, what I had in my pantry were rolled oats, so I used a combination of a few recipes along with what sounded good to me and created my own recipe.

My husband and son both liked the oatmeal. My husband said it reminds him of bread pudding (he and my son are both bread pudding fans). I would agree the texture is a lot like bread pudding (the texture mostly being what I don't like about bread pudding). It's also not as sweet as bread pudding and definitely has an oatmeal flavor. But I think bread pudding is a good description of it because if you are expecting a traditional oatmeal, this will disappoint you. I was not first planning to post this recipe because it turned out nothing like I expected, but my husband really enjoyed it, so I thought maybe I should share the recipe. My son just ate it tonight for dessert, warmed up with vanilla ice cream on top (the way he likes his bread pudding).

2 cups rolled oats
3 cups water
1 egg
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup apple sauce
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp salt

Mix oats with cinnamon, allspice and salt. Put in bowl that can fit inside of your crock pot (and is oven safe). In a separate bowl, mix egg, sugar, applesauce and vanilla. Add egg and sugar mixture to the oats, pour water on top. Place bowl inside crock pot and fill crock pot with water (going up the sides of the bowl almost to the top). Put crock pot on low for 8hrs.

I put mine in before bed and turned it off in the morning. The water bath method made cleaning the crock pot super easy. The cinnamon and allspice seems to settle on top a bit (probably floats on top of the water), so I mixed all of the oatmeal together once out of the crock pot. We stored our oatmeal in the bowl it cooked in with plastic wrap in the refrigerator for 3 days before it was all eaten. I was going to heat it in a bowl with some milk to thin it out to oatmeal consistency and maybe add some agave syrup or stir in some raisins etc. But I never got to try that since my family liked the bread pudding oatmeal.