The Best Healthy Chocolate Baked Oats Recipe

These naturally sweetened and delicious chocolate baked oats filled with essential nutrients will quickly become your favorite easy breakfast!

This recipe was inspired by Baked Oats With No Banana, Yogurt Blueberry Overnight Oats For Baby and Easy Peanut Butter Overnight Oats.

Why you will love baked oatmeal

• Oats are filled with essential nutrients, energy and fiber, but also pretty easy to make.
• If you're running out of time in the morning, you can always go for some overnight oats and prepare them the evening before.
• Endless variations
• Great for toddlers and bigger kids
• Made with unsweetened cacao powder that is full of antioxidants and sweetened with just banana

Chocolate Oatmeal Ingredients 

To make this nutritious breakfast, you will need the following ingredients: 

• oats: rolled oats, quick oats or quick cooking oats - you can pretty much use any of those for this delicious recipe
• unsweetened cocoa powder: this really is the key to get the rich chocolate flavor but without any extra sugars and make it a really healthy recipe 
• baking powder: pretty much for any baked recipe you will need a leavening agent and baking powder is always my choice. On rare occasions when I run out of it, baking soda is a good enough alternative 
• milk: you can use any milk of choice for this recipe. I sometimes use cow's milk but other times plant-based ones such as almond milk or oat milk 
• bananas: the key to getting a naturally sweet taste of these baked oats is using ripe bananas. I would even go that far and tell you that they should be overripe 
• egg: to help bind all the ingredients together into a delicious baked oatmeal, you'll need an egg. Try and make it organic and/or free-range 
• coconut oil: this is my oil of choice for any baked recipe but you can easily substitute with another vegetable oil or some butter 
• honey and vanilla extract: I make these ingredients optional. If you would like a sweeter taste, you can add a tablespoon of honey or another natural sweetener like pure maple syrup or dates. 

How To Make Chocolate-Baked Oats - Step-by-Step 

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius / 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Gently grease an 8 x 8 inches (20 x 20 centimeters) pan or line with parchment paper. 
2. Mix all the wet ingredients together in a large mixing bowl. 
3. In a separate bowl, combine all the dry ingredients. 
4. Now add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix gently with a silicone spatula or a whisk.  
5. Pour into the pan and even the surface with your spatula. 
6. Bake for about 40 minutes. 
7. Once baked, allow to cool in the pan. 
8. ​Slice once cooled and serve. 

Chocolate Oatmeal Variations And Add-Ins 

If you want to change things up a bit with this chocolate oatmeal, try some of the following ideas and our favorite toppings: 

• Add some mini chocolate chips to the chocolate-baked oats batter before baking (plus leave a few to add on top) or follow our recipe for Baked oatmeal with chocolate chips
• Add some chopped up nuts or shredded coconut into the batter before baking 
• Add a tablespoon or two of nut butter into the dry ingredients when mixing - almond butter and peanut butter are both great options but you will not go wrong with cashew butter either 
• For a nut butter alternative - serve the chocolate baked oats with some nut butter spread on top 
• Serve your chocolate oatmeal with some fresh fruit on the side 

How To Store Leftover Chocolate Baked Oats 

In case you have some leftover chocolate-baked oats or want to make a big batch beforehand, you can slice them up into servings and store in an airtight container at room temperature for one day or in the fridge for up to 3 days. If stored in the fridge, before serving you can either leave at room temperature for an hour or you can heat up in the microwave or the oven. 

I would avoid freezing chocolate-baked oats because once it is thawed it is never quite as chewy and palatable as you would want it to be. But nutritionally or speaking from a food safety point of view, you are fine to freeze it for up to 3 months. 

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