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 Sweet Potato Steel Cut Oats.
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.
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.
I would love to do this but I’m a diabetic. That would send my blood sugar soaring. Not to mention that I am the only one that will eat it in my house. So if u make adjustments I would love to give it a try.
@lori, I’m diabetic too. I made this using 1/2 tsp of maple flavoring (from King Arthur Flour, not the fake stuff) instead of the maple syrup. Didn’t spike my blood sugar at all. Steel cut oats and oat groats are lower glycemic index than oatmeal. I also used just water to cook the oats. I find milk in crockpots often curdles.
I don’t use my slow cooker often enouh either… it always seems liek a great idea, but then i just never actually do it. This recipe looks amazing though – LOVE how syrupy those cherries are!
There is hardly a better combination than chocolate and cherries, but I never thought to put them in oatmeal. Yum! I must try this immediately!
Chocolate and cherries with oatmeal? I’m in heaven!
All of the national food holidays sorta crack me up and I do not keep up with them. I appreciate your sarcasm pertaining to National Oatmeal Day. What? That exists? LOL. :)
Totally digging this oatmeal, Gina. Those cherries, WHOA. I might have to make some just to eat straight from a bowl solo!
Yum! I haven’t really thought about using the slow cooker for oatmeal, but I might just have to now!
Well look at you totally making black forest oatmeal! This looks so good and I love the almond extract in it!
I adore oatmeal and making it in a slow cooker sounds amazing Gina! I love the cherries too for added flavour!
We just made a slow cooker almond joy oatmeal and it was so good. I adore cocoa + oats!!
Well hello there , delicious! Who wouldn’t want to wake up to this?