This slow cooker chocolate cherry steel cut oatmeal is waiting for you when you wake up in the morning. Start your day with a delicious comforting bowl for breakfast.
There’s a slow cooker category on this site and after almost four years, it has a whopping six recipes in it.
For a “small” appliance that takes up an entire shelf of a corner cabinet, that’s pretty pathetic.
None of them happen to be breakfast recipes either and after a week of single digit temperatures and a freezing cold house in the morning before we get the wood stove going again (because of course the year we get a wood stove to offset the insane cost of heating a house in NY, the price of oil plummets), I could really get behind an already cooked comforting breakfast that I can eat under my wool blanket on the couch with a cup of coffee.
Since it happens to be National Oatmeal Month (yeah, that’s a thing apparently), slow cooker steel cut oats seemed like the perfect solution.
Check out slow cooker millet porridge too – a fun (also gluten-free) alternative to oatmeal.
A boring bowl of beige oats didn’t seem too exciting though which is exactly where dark chocolate and cherries come in.
Any morning that starts with chocolate is a win by me but adding cherries and not just any cherries, but deliciously tangy and good- for- you tart cherries, makes this breakfast even better.
Montmorency tart cherries (sometimes known as sour cherries) are rich in vitamin A and pack a nutrient punch to your breakfast that’s just an added bonus to their amazing sweet and sour taste.
The combination of chocolate and tart cherries in this recipe is like taking a bite of black forest cake with every spoonful.
Cake for breakfast? Um yes, please.
So while these cherries are great in everything from smoothies, to drinking the tart cherry juice straight up or even throwing them in your bowl of cereal, I’ll be cozying up with a bowl of this comforting chocolate cherry steel cut oatmeal until the temps reach at least freezing again.
Looking for more fruit + oatmeal combinations? Try strawberry oatmeal, peaches and cream oats or apple butter carrot cake oatmeal (also made in the slow cooker) too!
Loved this slow cooker chocolate cherry steel cut oatmeal recipe?
Try these other oatmeal recipes: Triple Chocolate Steel Cut Oatmeal, Baked Apple Oatmeal, and Instant Pot Steel Cut Oats. If you have time for the stove-top, I can’t recommend this rich and creamy steel cut oatmeal with orange and blackberry sauce.
Slow Cooker Chocolate Cherry Steel Cut Oatmeal
Ingredients
For the Oatmeal:
- 2 cups 2% milk
- 2 cups water
- 1 cup steel cut oats
- 1/3 cup dried tart cherries
- 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 ounce chopped unsweetened bakers chocolate
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
- Pinch kosher salt
For the Cherry Sauce:
- 1 1/2 cups frozen tart cherries
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
Instructions
- Combine all the ingredients for the oatmeal in a 3 or 4 quart slow cooker (*see note) and stir together.
- Cover, cook on low for 8 hours the night before and set so that the slow cooker stays on warm after it’s done cooking.
- In the morning, combine the ingredients for the sauce in a small sauce pot over medium-high heat.
- Bring to a simmer and let cook for about 7-10 minutes until thickened.
- Uncover the oatmeal, stir and add a bit more milk if it’s thickened up too much.
- Spoon the oatmeal into serving bowls and top with the cherry sauce.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
*This post is sponsored by the Cherry Marketing Institute as part of my ongoing partnership with them. All content and opinions are my own.
Gina Matsoukas is an AP syndicated writer. She is the founder, photographer and recipe developer of Running to the Kitchen — a food website focused on providing healthy, wholesome recipes using fresh and seasonal ingredients. Her work has been featured in numerous media outlets both digital and print, including MSN, Huffington post, Buzzfeed, Women’s Health and Food Network.
This looks amazing! Yum!!
Whoa, this looks awesome! I ‘ve not thought to put cherries in my breakfast bowl like this, yum!
I love my slow cooker, but don’t use it nearly enough, and never for breakfast. This sounds like the perfect recipe to fix that
This looks so good! Love the cherry chocolate combo! I miss my slow cooker while I’m in school during the year! Ah!
I’ve been trying to make at least one thing in my slow cooker every week but I haven’t tried a breakfast yet. This oatmeal looks like a great place to start!
I am eating a bowl of steel cut oats as I read this, but mine are missing chocolate! Tart cherries are just he best too :)
I love slow cooker oatmeal — and this is an amazing flavor! The cherry and chocolate combination is perfection.
I love how much the dried tart cherries plumped up in the slow cooker. And what a gorgeous color!
Wow, this is one delicious bowl of oats. Definitely not boring at all. Pinned.
You know how obsessed I am with slow cooker meals so this is right up my alley!!