I baked you something warm and comforting.

This is a sweet and filling summertime breakfast.

Baked oatmeal is a go-to comforting recipe. It’s so easy to do and hard to mess up. That’s what I was looking for when I made this.

Last week, I attempted a dessert to share with you that went terribly wrong. And I attempted to change up one of my favorite recipes from my mom. It was not a change for the better.

Both were edible, but not share-able. We ate both but they left no great impression. That’s why I made this oatmeal.

I needed to make something I knew would be good. I needed something to comfort me. I needed to make something to reassure me, that I can make something good.

This oatmeal did the trick.

Cherry + vanilla is one of my all-time favorite combinations. I go crazy for cherry vanilla ice cream. And when I had a cherry vanilla cupcake a few months ago in DC, I couldn’t believe my taste buds. I decided to recreate that cupcake, and my maraschino and vanilla cupcakes are one of the most popular recipes on this site. You just can’t go wrong with cherry and vanilla.

And what better time of the year for cherries. They are gorgeous right now, like little pieces of art. And they taste amazing. I can’t even get over how much I love eating cherries right now.

This oatmeal is simple. Not many ingredients. But it is full of vanilla flavor. It is studded with real vanilla beans, which I think is one of the best flavors, ever. And, I added vanilla extract, to make that vanilla flavor even more amplified. The cherries are mixed right in, at the end, and they become soft and sweet, sort of like in a cherry dessert.

I think this would be an awesome weekend breakfast, with room for leftovers all week. I hope you enjoy this cherry vanilla baked oatmeal!

Ingredients
3 cups oats
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups milk (I used coconut)
1 egg
2 vanilla beans, seeds scraped from the stem
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons melted coconut oil
1-2 cups of cherries, depending on your preference, pitted

Preheat the oven to 350*.

In a mixing bowl, combine the oats, brown sugar, baking powder and salt. Whisk together well.

In another bowl, combine the milk, egg, vanilla beans seeds, vanilla extract and melted coconut oil. Mix together well.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones and mix until just combined. Gently stir in the cherries.

Bake in the preheated oven for 30-40 minutes, or until firm and slightly golden.

Enjoy!

Notes:
-I enjoyed this oatmeal both warm and cold, with almond milk.
-For directions on how to scrape the seeds from a vanilla bean, see here.