These Overnight Fruitcake Baked Steel Cut Oats are perfumed with cinnamon, ginger, and cloves, studded with macerated dried fruits and fresh apple, and then topped with Festive Streusel. Because if you can't have streusel on your baked oatmeal at Christmas, when can you have it?The base recipe here is by Dara Michalski from her post over at The Pioneer Woman. I have kept the basic proportions of that recipe and then altered the spices and fruits.
Combine all the dried fruit in a small saucepan. Add the juice or cider and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes, until fruit has plumped up. Cool to warm.
For the Baked Oatmeal
Butter an 8 x 8" square baking pan or a deep dish pie pan (I used a pie pan). Heat oven to 375F.
Whisk together the oats, baking powder, salt, and spiced together. Set aside.
Whisk together the milk, egg, sugar, vanilla, and citrus zest. Set aside.
Spread the apples and cooled fruits evenly in the bottom of the prepared pan.
Whisk the milk mixture into the oatmeal mixture until well-combined and then pour over the apples. Some will float. It's okay.
Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven, evenly sprinkle the streusel all over the top of the oats and bake an additional 20-30 minutes, until the oatmeal is set and the streusel is golden brown. Serve warm with a little bit of cinnamon whipped cream.
For the Streusel
Mix all ingredients together using a pastry cutter or your fingers until the butter is well cut-in and the mixture is crumbly. Set aside at room temperature until needed.
Notes
You can make both the stewed fruit and the streusel a day or two ahead with no problem.