Today I’ve got a seasonal dessert for breakfast option with these amazing gingerbread cookie overnight oats. Full of warm spices and molasses, these gingerbread oats will satisfy any dessert cravings you might have during the holidays.
Overnight oats are one of my favourite things to bring to work for breakfast so I of course needed to make a Christmassy flavour. I like to make my oats like dessert so I decided to try a gingerbread cookie version. These gingerbread oats don’t disappoint and you will get all those beautiful flavours of spices and molasses!
Gingerbread is one of my favourite holiday flavours and as a bonus, molasses is a healthier sweetener option as it does contain some minerals like zinc and iron. While blackstrap molasses is the healthiest form of molasses, it is tricky to bake with so I don’t recommend it in this recipe. Instead, just go for a fancy molasses!
Why I Love Overnight Oats
- Super simple and quick to make. Only takes about 5 minutes.
- Easy to grab out of the fridge in the morning and take with me to work.
- Easy to eat when I’m busy at work. I can have a couple bites while I’m going over patient’s imaging at my desk and then come back to it later.
- Adding to the previous reason, when I take 3-4 hours to eat my oats throughout the morning, they taste good straight out of the fridge and once they’ve warmed up to room temperature. Perfect breakfast when you don’t actually get a proper break to eat. While some people may say I could eat before work, I don’t care to get up earlier in the morning and I’m never hungry until I’ve been up for 1-2 hours. I know many other people have the same problem.
- They are super healthy and easy to add various toppings too like berries for added nutrition.
- There are a million different flavour combinations. Believe me, I’ve got about 30 different recipes written down that I need to test. This is important to me because I find I get bored of foods quick. If I can eat a different flavour every day of the week, I’m likely not going to get bored. Plus you are then eating a variety of different foods. For a different wintery oats recipe, try my spiced plum overnight oats.
Want to try some other overnight oats? Check out my coconut cream pie overnight oats or my black forest overnight oats! Both are delicious and will feel like you’re eating dessert for breakfast.
Benefits of Oats
- Oats are a great source of fibre, mostly soluble fibre which helps slow down digestion and keeps you feeling full longer. The type of soluble fibre also aids gut health by supporting healthy gut bacteria. This can help reduce inflammation and symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome.
- While many people say oats have no protein and aren’t a good thing to eat due to this, we seem to be a very protein obsessed culture currently, this isn’t actually true. While oats aren’t a high source of protein, they do contain about 4g per serving and include a good balance of essential amino acids. This is still important as you do need all of the essential amino acids in your diet, not just some of them.
- Oats are also high in iron, an essential mineral that many people don’t get enough, especially women. Iron is essential for making hemoglobin which is how your body carries oxygen throughout your body.
- As well as iron, oats are also a good source of other trace minerals like manganese, copper and phosphorus. These all aid your body in various tasks like bone building, collagen forming, creating red blood cells, etc. These are just a few of the benefits of eating oats and a few of the reasons I love them so much. If you’d like more information, check out https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4325078/ or https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/food-features/oats/.
Gluten Free Gingerbread Cookie Overnight Oats
Making this recipe gluten free is super simple, all you need to do is ensure your oats are certified gluten free. That’s it! Also, make sure if you top it with a crumbled cookie or anything similar that, that is also gluten free.
As a side note, if making anything gluten free for someone with an allergy, ensure you thoroughly wash any equipment, jars or utensils. Any contact with flour may trigger an allergy. I like to say any baking I do in my own home is gluten friendly as I am using flour often and cannot guarantee there’s been no cross contamination.
Baking Tips
- For best results, once you’ve mixed everything together, let it rest in the fridge overnight for at least 6 hours. This helps the oats get nice and soft and gives you a creamier consistency.
- I create my recipes based off weights so I recommend measuring by weights if you own a scale. It’s actually so much easier and makes for much less cleanup. I wish I had baked by weight from the beginning, I could never go back now.
Other Nutritious Breakfasts On the Go
Cranberry Ricotta Muffins
Cream Cheese Filled Carrot Muffins
Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
Bakery Style Apple Butter Muffins
Chocolate Almond Banana Muffins
Today’s song is a song I would always listen too, and usually cry, while I was going to school in North Dakota and couldn’t wait to go home for Christmas. Some years, because of my program, I wouldn’t know if I could go home and if I could, it was after everyone else had always left. This song always simultaneously made me cry, homesick and feel a little closer to home. Here’s Carry Me Home by Hey Rosetta!. Happy baking!! **Disclaimer: Liv’s Little Muffins owns no rights to this song.
Don’t forget to leave a STAR REVIEW if you try my recipe! Follow me on Facebook or tag me on instagram @livslittlemuffins. Find more ideas on my Pinterest or Whisk.
Gingerbread Cookie Overnight Oats
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup (60g) rolled oats
- 1/2 tbsp (5g) chia seeds
- 1/4 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/8 tsp ground cloves
- 1/2 cup (110g) unsweetened oat milk
- 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tbsp (8g) molasses
- 3/4 tbsp (15g) maple syrup
- 1 1/2 tbsp (30g) cashew butter
Additional Optional Toppings
- 1 crushed lotus biscuit or gingerbread cookie
- 1 tbsp chopped pecans
Instructions
- In a small jar or container, that's at least 250mL, add your oats, chia seeds, ground ginger, ground cinnamon and ground cloves. Give it a quick stir.
- Then add in the milk, vanilla, molasses, maple syrup and cashew butter. Stir everything until well combined making sure to blend in the cashew butter.
- Seal the container or jar and store in the fridge for at least 6 hours. Before eating, top with any desired additional toppings and enjoy!
