Recipe: Baked Steel Cut Oats

These past few weeks I have been joining in on the "mini-pledge" from 100 Days of Real Food, one of my favorite blogs. If you haven't checked it out you should. 

This week's pledge was to try two new "whole foods" that you have never tried before. Surprisingly, this was hard for me because I have tried so many! But then one group member shared an oatmeal recipe and I decided to give Steel Cut Oats a try. I am so glad I did, because they are fantastic!

I wish I could say this recipe was all my own, but sadly it's not. The original is here. I did, however, modify it quite a bit when I made mine. 

Baked Steel Cut Oats

Ingredients:

2 cups steel cut oats, organic if possible

½ cup (or desired amount) chopped pecans (luckily, I had some from my backyard. Other nuts work good too!)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon fine sea salt

¾ to 1 ½ cups raisins (or fruit or really anything)

2 cups Almond milk (original recipe calls for whole milk. I chose almond as a health alternative)

1/3 cup maple syrup (but honey works too). Get natural of course!

1 large egg

1.5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly - I actually used Ghee since it's all I had on hand. 

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Recipe:

1) Preheat the oven to 375°F.

2) In an 8-inch square baking dish, mix together the oats, the nuts, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Scatter the raisins on top or mix in with the dry ingredients. 

3) In another bowl, whisk together the milk, maple syrup, egg, about half of the butter, and vanilla. Slowly drizzle the milk mixture over the oats. Gently give the baking dish a couple of thwacks on the counter top to make sure the liquid moves down through the oats.  BUT DO NO MIX THE INGREDIENTS.

4) Bake for 35 to 45 minutes, or until the top is golden and the oat mixture has set. Remove from the oven, and allow to cool for a few minutes. 

Of course this tastes best fresh out of the oven, but if you are like me and don't have that much time, make it ahead and microwave throughout the week. Still tastes just as good! 

I like the nutty flavor of the steel cut oats and the way the milk was absorbed into them to make it a bit crumbly when I reheated. I also love the cinnamon/raisin combo. But like I said, experiment with your toppings. I wander what it'd be like with chocolate chips?

~Lisa