Thick, chewy steel cut oatmeal gets topped with crunchy cinnamon apples and an easy maple almond butter caramel for a cozy fall breakfast bowl with some major caramel apple vibes!
Today we’re taking one of the most under appreciated fall festival snacks (hi there caramel apple, you beautiful thing, you) and turning it into breakfast.
Listen, I get it. When you’re at the fair and there’s fried dough and apple fritters and warm apple cider and kettle corn and pumpkin everything, you might look at a caramel apple and be a little underwhelmed; you can eat an apple any other day of the year, after all, and you need to conserve your precious stomach space for the aforementioned fried dough. I really, really get it.
Because of this, I feel like I haven’t actually eaten a caramel apple in…well, a long time. Like, maybe decades??
It’s a shame, because there’s something so right about the combination of cold, slightly tart, crisp apple + sweet sticky caramel.
So, to make amends for all of my years of overlooking the humble caramel apple, I’m recreating it in breakfast form.
Behold, the caramel apple oatmeal bowl:
First, we’re making a pot of thick, creamy, chewy, steel cut oats. I like to soak the oats in a pot with cold water overnight, which reduces the cooking time down to only about 5 minutes. If you happen to be reading this in the morning and want to eat it today, fear not: you can make these the day of, it will just take you about 30 minutes, as steel-cut oats are much like brown rice in that they require a long, slow cooking process. You could certainly swap out old fashioned or quick-cooking oats here, too, if that’s more in line with the pace of your mornings.
The real show-stopper here is the toppings: raw, crunchy apples, diced finely and tossed with lemon juice and cinnamon and thick almond butter caramel made with maple syrup and vanilla.
The combination of the two on top makes for a bite of crunchy apples and sweet caramel in every.single.bite of oatmeal, which is absolute breakfast bliss.
Believe me, you need this oatmeal in your life.
If you make it, let me know what you think! Leave a comment below, or take a picture of your Caramel Apple Steel Cut Oatmeal and share it with me on Instagram so I can see!
Caramel Apple Steel Cut Oatmeal
Time: 10-30 minutes
Serves: 2
Ingredients:
oatmeal
- 1 cup steel cut oats
- 2 cups water
- 2 cups milk of choice (I used unsweetened almond)
- a pinch of salt
- 1 large apple
- 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice (about 1/4 of a lemon)
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
caramel
- 2 Tablespoons almond butter
- 2 Tablespoons maple syrup
- 1 Tablespoon virgin coconut oil, melted or at very soft room temperature
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
Instructions:
- Place oats, water, milk, and salt into a medium pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and cover, cooking for 25-30 minutes, or until oats are tender to your liking (see notes for quicker, overnight cooking method).
- While oats cook, finely dice the apple. Place in a small bowl with the lemon juice and cinnamon, and toss to combine.
- Stir together all caramel ingredients in a small bowl until smooth.
- Once oatmeal is finished cooking, divide it between two large bowls and top each with half of the apples and half of the caramel. Serve immediately, or let cool completely and store in the fridge for up to 5 days before reheating and serving.
NOTES:
To make steel cut oats cook much more quickly, start them the night before: place the oats in a pot with 2 cups of water, cover, and let sit on the stove at room temperature overnight. In the morning, simply add the milk and salt, bring to a boil, then reduce to low and let simmer for 5 minutes before serving.