Wake up to this cozy fall inspired breakfast made in the Instant Pot. This Apple Pie Oatmeal feels like eating apple pie in a bowl. You can even meal prep this easy breakfast for busy mornings!

I love oatmeal for breakfast, Sarvesh not so much. He has recently warmed up to it though, like earlier he would not even try but not he eats a bowl especially when I flavor it and add different toppings to it.

Making steel cut oats has become much much easier ever since I started cooking it in the Instant Pot. No, it does not take less time. In fact it takes around the same time as it would take on stove-top. But I can add everything to the pot, go take a shower, reply to my emails and the oatmeal will be done by then.

And that’s what I love most about the IP- the hands-free cooking part. I often get this question- what’s so special about Instant Pot when we Indians have always used a traditional pressure cooker. Is it faster than traditional pressure cooker? And my answer is always no, it isn’t. But it gives more consistent results and I don’t have to stand to turn off the flame and count the whistles. For me, that’s a huge plus! You can read more on FAQs that I get about the Instant Pot in this post here.

Coming back to oatmeal, other than the banana oatmeal which I make often, this Apple Pie Oatmeal is another favorite of mine. Especially now with the cold mornings, it makes just the breakfast to wake up to.

This Apple Pie Oatmeal

• is the perfect breakfast for fall!
• is very filling and keep you full for hours.
• topped with caramelized apples and walnuts which feels like eating apple pie!
• easy to make in the Instant Pot.

This recipe has 2 parts to it, the oatmeal and the apple topping. The topping part is not essential but I recommend it. The topping is so good that it’s worth the extra effort.

Ingredients

Steel Cut Oats: I am a fan of steel cut oats and prefer them over rolled oats. You can use rolled oats in this recipe though but do not use instant oats.

Brown Sugar: for that apple pie flavor, I like using brown sugar in this recipe. But you may use jaggery, coconut sugar, white sugar or maple syrup as well.

Milk: any milk can be used here. I have used cashew milk here but feel free to use any milk of choice.

Spices: apple and cinnamon are meant to be together so I have used cinnamon and nutmeg in this recipe. If you don’t have nutmeg you can skip it.

Apple: I like using envy apples since they are really sweet but Honeycrisp will be good too.

Walnuts: if you are allergic to nuts you can skip the walnuts else do use them here, adds such a nice crunch. You may also replace the walnuts with pecans.

Caramelized Apple Topping

This recipe has 2 parts to it-

• the basic oatmeal made with oats, spices, apple, milk and water
• the topping made with butter, brown sugar, apple, lemon juice, spices and walnuts

The oatmeal is made in the Instant Pot while the topping is made in a pan on stove-top. Although, you can make it in the Instant Pot too (on the sauté mode).

You can definitely skip making the topping. Just add extra sugar to the oatmeal, top with apple and walnuts and serve. But to take your oatmeal to next level- I suggest making the topping. It’s so good! Diced apples are cooked with brown sugar, butter and spices and there can’t be anything better than that.

You entire house is filled with the aroma of cinnamon when you make this topping!

Step by Step Method

1- To the inner steel pot of your Instant Pot, add water and cashew milk (or any milk of choice). You can lightly spray the pot with a oil spray to prevent too much sticking of the oats.

2- Then add 1/2 cup steel cut oats.

3- Followed by cored and chopped apple, brown sugar, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder and 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg.

4- Do not stir but you can press everything with a spatula so that it’s all submerged in liquid. Close the lid. Pres the porridge button and adjust the timing to 12 minutes (porridge mode is default at high pressure) with the pressure valve in the sealing position. Let the pressure release naturally for 5 minutes and then do a quick pressure release.

5- While oats are cooking, melt a tablespoon of butter in a pan on medium heat.

6- Once the butter melts, add brown sugar and stir. Let it melt and mix well with the butter.

7- Squeeze fresh lemon juice and stir.

8- Then add diced apples, cinnamon powder and vanilla extract.

9- Stir and cook the apples for around 2 to 3 minutes.

10- Then add walnuts and stir.

11- Cook for 2 more minutes until apples are soft and caramelized.

12- Open the lid of instant pot, give a good stir and transfer oats to serving bowl. Top with the caramelized apples and walnut topping. Serve warm!

With or Without Topping

Either way is okay, here are my recommendations.

No Topping: add an extra tablespoon of brown sugar to the oatmeal while pressure cooking. Serve with diced apple and chopped walnuts. You may toast the walnuts if you want.

With topping: Add oatmeal to serving bowls and then top with around 2 tablespoons of topping.

You can add more milk to adjust the consistency while serving this apple pie oatmeal.

Making It Vegan

Use vegan butter to make the topping. If you skip the caramelized apples, then this recipe is vegan.

Using Rolled Oats

You can make this oatmeal using rolled oats. The pressure cooking time will decrease, you will probably need to cook for 3 to 5 minutes on high pressure only. Allow natural pressure release of 10 minutes. Also reduce the liquids a bit.

Tips & Notes

• You can do the same recipe with pear. Just replace the apples with pear and follow the same recipe.
• If your Instant Pot does not have porridge button, use the manual/pressure cook button.
• Add more warm milk before serving if you prefer a thinner consistency for your oatmeal.
• If you are not making the caramelized apples and simply adding chopped apples on top before serving, then you can increase the amount of sugar in the oats to 2 tablespoons from 1.

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