Spiced Apple Baked Oats

Let’s face it, breakfast really is the most important meal of the day. I know the difference in my day when I haven’t eaten a proper breakfast. But, we can so easily get stuck in a rut eating the same thing day in and day out. I love porridge, but I can get a bit bored of it so this variation on that most staple of breakfasts is a winner. I present you with spiced apple baked oats.

Firstly, I have to give a shout out to Becka over at beckasbubble.com for introducing me to baked oats. Until I saw Becka’s on her Instagram story I have neither heard of them of thought of the idea myself. Hers was a slimming world recipe that uses egg and yoghurt, but I wanted mine to be 100% plant-based and vegan – so I adapted it.

I could have substituted the natural yoghurt with a plant-based alternative, but in my haste to make this I didn’t – because I didn’t have any in I left it out. As for the egg, well, I just left that out altogether. I will, of course, try this again with a plant-base yoghurt and update this post.

With the recipe, Becka sent me there was a sweetener in use. Now, I get that with Slimming World that sugar is a no-no and you substitute with sweetener. However, I’m 100% comfortable with chemical sweeteners and avoid them myself. So, as sugar and therefore golden syrup is vegan, I used that to provide that bit of sweetness.

Ingredients for spiced apple baked oats

• 1/2 cup of porridge oats
• 1 cup oat milk
• 1 medium apple, finely chopped or grated
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tbsp golden syrup
• 1/4 cup frozen berries

How to make spiced apple baked oats

1. Pre-heat your oven to 200C
2. In an oven-proof dish add the oats, oat milk, apple and cinnamon and stir until thoroughly mixed
3. Drizzle the golden syrup over the top (do not stir it in)
4. Place in the pre-heat oven for 20 minutes
5. Remove the dish from the oven and sprinkle the frozen berries over the top and return the dish to the over for a further 10 minutes

I have to say this was a delicious variation on porridge in my opinion. It might seem like a bit of a faff to make for breakfast but it worked for me as while it was in the oven I was making our girls’ packed lunches anyway.
Another way you could save time would be to prepare it the night before and keep it in the fridge overnight and bake it in the morning – this would need longer in the over though. What you would get with the overnight method it the creamier texture of overnight oats and you may need to add more milk to the mixture so it doesn’t dry out.

Let me know if you make this and if you have any recipe ideas fire them my way.

Thanks for reading.

D

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