Christmas Cranberry Eggnog Oatmeal

BreakfastHolidayHostingCooking for a crowdWinter foodBrunchChristmas

Dec 3

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With cozy holidays on the horizon, I’ve been filling up my phone notes app with holiday meal planning and my kitchen with seasonal ingredients. While I usually like to make a full-on meal of pancakes, bacon, and fruit on Christmas morning, it can certainly be exhausting. And it would be even more so if I had houseguests or children to worry about! With these thoughts in mind, I decided I wanted to develop a fun and festive recipe that’s great for a holiday morning without the fuss of a full spread. This oatmeal is high on flavor, low on labor, and great with a hot cup of coffee on a wintery morning. So you can enjoy more time with your friends and family and less time worrying about feeding everyone! It’s also easily doubled or tripled for larger groups.

Recipe Notes:

Cranberries: If you don’t want to include cranberries in your oatmeal, you can replace them with most other dried fruit such as raisins, chopped dried apricots, chopped dried apple, or chopped dates or figs. You could also take out the dried fruit, but I do think that it adds a lot of good texture and gives your palette a nice little break from the creamy richness of the oatmeal.
Dairy: I use some whole milk and some sweetened condensed milk to make this recipe nicely rich and sweet without having to add extra sweetener, cutting down on the ingredients needed for the recipe. However, if you want to make this recipe vegan, oat milk and sweetened condensed coconut milk are great replacements.
Nutmeg: The nutmeg, along with the sweetened condensed milk, are what give this oatmeal its sweet eggnog flavor. I always recommend grating your own fresh nutmeg, as it really makes a big difference! You won’t need as much as you might use if pre-ground, as it’s much more flavorful and aromatic when freshly grated. So, if you are using pre-ground, start with a half teaspoon and see if you can taste it in the final product, adding more if needed.

Step-By-Step Walk-Through

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Step 1:

Mix Ingredients

In a medium pot, mix together 2 cups of old-fashioned rolled oats, 2 cups of water, 1 cup of whole milk, 1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk, about ¼ teaspoon of freshly-grated nutmeg, and ½ cup dried cranberries.

Step 2:

Cook

Place pot over medium heat. Stirring regularly, bring to a simmer.

Once oatmeal begins to simmer (it will get quite steamy and small bubbles will be forming and popping around edges), let cook 4-6 minutes, stirring constantly, until oatmeal is thickened to your preferred consistency.