Baked Apple Oatmeal

You saw how I used that homemade apple cider, but what did I do with that applesauce that went along with it?

At the beginning of fall I saw a bunch of recipes for baked oatmeal.  I was intrigued and pinned one particular recipe to try for later.  Well fall went on and I sort of forgot about it, until I had this applesauce and nothing to do with it.

I tend to go through phases with what I eat.  There are certain foods I will absolutely binge on for weeks and even months until I get so sick of them I won't want to eat them anymore.  A pretty recent one has been tortilla chips with sour cream/salsa/shredded cheese dip.  A while ago I was making these grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch almost every day.  Sometimes, if someone picked up a particularly delicious cereal at the store that day, I wouldn't even wait until the morning to have a bowl of it.  For a couple of weeks in the summer I actually branched out from my milk and cereal breakfast and explored other options.  I would have half of a grapefruit sprinkled with about 1 tablespoon of sugar every morning (and I'd sometimes finish the other half for second breakfast.  Oh how I love my second breakfast).  For the next few weeks, I'd make oatmeal every morning and eat it like a hot cereal, sprinkled with brown sugar.  Once school started oatmeal seemed to time consuming, so I went back to my cold cereal and milk breakfasts.

This is a delicious way to make oatmeal.  It takes about 35 minutes to bake, so if you're planning on eating it before work I'd make it over the weekend or the night before - it still tastes great reheated.  The thing I love about this recipe is how versatile it is.  You can use almost any fruit with it or sprinkle nuts on top instead of brown sugar.  If you don't use applesauce, I would recommend lining the bottom of the pan with slices of fruit, like banana or peaches.  Any other fruit you decide to add can be sprinkled on the top.  I encourage you to experiment with many different flavors, let me know if you find one that you absolutely love!

Baked Apple Oatmeal

Makes enough for 1 8x8 in dish

Ingredients

- 1 ½ c old-fashioned oats

- ½ tsp baking powder

- ¾ tsp ground cinnamon

- pinch of salt

- ¼ c maple syrup

- 1 c milk

- 1 egg, slightly beaten

- 2 tbsp butter, melted and cooled.

- 1 tsp. vanilla extract

- 1 ½ c applesauce

- 2 tbsp brown sugar. 

Directions

Preheat oven to 375F and grease the bottom and sides of a 8x8 in pan.  In a bowl, combine the oats, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.  In a separate bowl, combine the maple syrup, milk, egg, melted butter, and vanilla extract.  Spread the applesauce over the bottom of the pan, leaving a layer about a ¼ in thick.  Cover the fruit layer with the dry oats and then pour the liquid ingredients evenly over the oats.  Sprinkle brown sugar on top.  Bake for about 35 to 40 minutes, or until the top is golden brown.  Let cool before serving.

Adapted from Annie's Eats

Posted by Ali B at 3:22 PM