Chocolate Cherry Overnight Oats

Chocolate Cherry Overnight Oats are creamy, chocolaty, and full of plump, sweet dark cherries. It’s a delicious, healthy make-ahead breakfast that’ll fill you up, and you can easily take it with you when you’re on the go!

this recipe

Chocolate and cherries is one of my most favorite flavor combinations. Give me a box of chocolate-covered cherries or some Black Forest cake, and I am one very happy girl. So, naturally, I thought why not try cherry and chocolate overnight oats for breakfast? What a yummy way to start the day!

So now that spring is finally here and the temperatures are (albeit slowly) creeping up, I’ve been getting back into the swing of making overnight oats. I do eat them all year long, but since I enjoy eating them cold, I definitely make them more when the weather is warmer.

If you’re new to overnight oats, be sure to check out my Basic Overnight Oats recipe post. It’s a great place to start, has some additional information and tips about making overnight oats, and you can use it to make all kinds of flavors.

These chocolate overnight oats with cherries are just one example. They’re a simple variation of that basic recipe.

I replace the plain almond milk with dark chocolate almond milk, add a little cocoa powder, reduce the amount of maple syrup, add some cherries, and voilà, a new recipe is born!

Besides the quick 5-minute-or-less prep time, the best part about these oats is that you feel like you’re having a treat for breakfast (it really is almost dessert-like), but it’s actually good for you!

Ingredients you need:

• Old-fashioned rolled oats
• Dark chocolate almond milk (or regular chocolate almond milk)
• Unsweetened cocoa powder
• Vanilla yogurt (regular or Greek)
• Vanilla extract
• Maple syrup
• Salt (optional)
• Pitted dark sweet cherries (fresh or frozen)

Here’s how to make Chocolate Cherry Overnight Oats:

Tips & Tidbits:

• I prefer to use old-fashioned rolled oats when I make overnight oats – I think the texture is better – but you can also use quick oats (not instant oats, though…they will be too mushy).
• Not into almond milk? Use any kind of chocolate milk…regular cow’s milk, oat milk, cashew milk, soy milk, etc.
• Fresh or frozen cherries will work. Fresh cherries are best when they are sweet and in season. I usually use frozen cherries because I can get them any time of the year, and they are always sweet and delicious.
• The pinch of salt is optional, but it really does enhance all those flavors. It’s just a wee bit, so it won’t make your oats salty. It’ll just make them even more delicious.
• You can make your overnight oats in a jar or a bowl. If you think you’ll be taking them with you, definitely go for the jar, because then you can just grab them and go in the morning.
• Do you eat them warm or cold? It’s totally up to you! I love them cold, but if you’d like them warm, gently heat them in a small pot on the stove, or put them in a microwave-safe bowl and microwave until heated through.
• Overnight oats will last for 3 to 4 days in the fridge. They will get softer the longer they sit.

Now, since I’m trying to keep things on the healthy side here, these oats aren’t overly sweet, and I don’t add chocolate chips or anything like that. BUT I do occasionally like to drizzle some chocolate syrup on top for some extra chocolaty goodness (I won’t tell if you don’t)!

I hope you try this recipe for Chocolate Cherry Overnight Oats and love it as much as I do. Thanks for visiting today!

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