I put the ingredients in a lightly sprayed pyrex bowl on a trivet in the cooker. This stops the oatmeal sticking. It never fails for me and I have been using my cooker for years to make oatmeal this way. I don't add salt.
It was lovely to wake up to hot oatmeal, but given my adaptations, I don't *need* to make this again, but might. I was using steel cut oats (granular in appearance / not rolled flakes) so I used the box ratio of 4c water to 1c oats. Plugged in at midnight. Awoke 7:00 a.m. to hot, creamy oatmeal. Required a stir to get rid of foamy layer, but not much loss in "cling-ons." *Note to self, use a crock pot liner for zero loss.* I stirred in salt and fat free 1/2 1/2, served a bowl with lite butter and Brown Sugar Splenda. VERY creamy, but a tad gluey. The chewy nutty texture from steel cut oats was lost; more akin to what microwave instant oatmeal is like. I ate a bowl, buttered a loaf pan and poured the rest into the loaf pan and chilled, wrapped. Next several mornings, I sliced a piece of "loaf" into a shallow dish w/ butter/sugar, and into the microwave it went for 1-2 minutes. Hot bubbling oatmeal followed, topped with a bit more 1/2 and 1/2, which was delicious. It stayed fresh for days and days that way.
I boiled the water added the dry steel cut oats and covered with lid.Wait 4 minutes then I turned off the stove and went to bed. In the morning the oatmeal is ready to be quickly heated (add the cream and sugar at that time) this is easy for those who don't have a slow cooker!
Tasted great but I had to play with the ingredients a bit.. I found that 4 c of water for 1 c of oats was perfect. With 3 c water the oatmeal had dried up by morning and with 5 c it was too watery.
I think that the wide variety of results on this recipe can be chalked up to crock-pot differences. To avoid a cooked on mess, your crock-pot needs to be 2/3-3/4 full when you turn it on. The recipe as written would fail miserably in a 6 qt cooker. Also, due to the long cooking time, use 20-25% more liquid than the oat container calls for. I wouldn't use instant oatmeal here. Try Old-Fashioned or Steel-Cut oats.
I have a 6 qt crock pot and I used:
2 cups old-fashioned oats
1 cup steel cut oats
8 cups water
3 cups milk
4 Tbsp butter
1/2 cup brown sugar (should have used more)
I cooked on low for 8 hours and stirred. The result was creamy and delicious and there was just a little stuck in the corners. This made a lot, but for the rest of the week I'll just portion it out and add a little milk before re-heating.
I wondered how people were cooking their oatmeal in a big slowcooker and finally found the one piece of info that many people were missing. Use the slowcooker like a bain-marie (water bath)! Inside my slowcooker I put a crock of some type (I use a corningwear pot or a 4 cup pyrex measuring cup). I put all of the oatmeal and water/milk per the recipe into the corningwear pot and then add water to the crockpot AROUND the corningwear pot to about halfway up the side of the corning wear pot. I don't put a lid on the corningwear pot. I put the lid on the slowcooker and put it on low overnight which for me is usually about 6 or 7 hours. In the morning the oatmeal is perfect and just needs a stir. Nothing has ever been stuck to the corningwear pot and because I didn't put the oatmeal into the slow cooker itself I don't have to clean the slowcooker. I just empty the water and wipe it dry.
i read the reviews before i made this and decided to add 2 tablespoons of butter to keep it from sticking to the crock. it either worked or my slow cooker is not suceptible to sticking. i cooked it on low overnight 9 hours and it was fantastic. i made it again the next night with chopped apple added before cooking. if you do this make sure to reduce the water by about 3/4 of a cup.
Here's my secret to this recipe: Use a small dip size crockpot (about one quart), and keep on "warm" setting overnight - I was lucky enough to find a crockpot that small with that setting - it works just great; no sticky, overcooked oatmeal.
I'll never make oatmeal the "regular" way again! Don't worry about it sticking to the sides a little just stir it well first thing in the morning then add your mix-ins (raisins are excellent) and let it sit for a half hour or so it's great. Wonderful left over. I don't use the cream just add milk to taste (doesn't take much!) to individual bowls.
