One Pan Apple Baked Oatmeal
The key to extra slow weekday mornings
If you’ve been around a Waldorf kindergarten for any period of time you have probably come across an oat bake, oat bar or baked oatmeal of some sort. It’s often on the weekly snack rotation. Ezra’s particular class had an apple crisp on Thursday’s and even though I wasn’t ever clear on how the class made it I knew it had tons of cinnamon because of his descriptions of the color. Fast forward a couple of years and my sister asked me if I’d ever had Ms Sonja’s (local beloved kindergarten teacher) oat bake—no? She sent me the recipe and I’ve been making it all winter tweaking it a little each time—with Ezra’s advice of course. Ms Sonja’s oat bake also has a huge amount of cinnamon so there must be something about kindy kids and the spice? I hold back a bit but I’ll let you decide how much to add.
I usually throw the ingredients of this oatmeal into the same pan that I’m cooking it in and its been working well. I do this as I’m prepping dinner and come morning time I’m in deep gratitude to my former self as I only need to heat the oven and slide it in for 30 minutes. Although we prioritize slow mornings with the boys this takes it to a whole new level and we can sip tea, read and snuggle on the couch for a longer stretch. Another addition to the ease and flow of the morning is the fact that it can be eaten warm from the oven, cool if we’re not ready to eat or cold if the book reading goes on and on. Leftovers go into the fridge and are then sliced for a snack—it holds together and travels well.
For decades I’ve ignored baked oatmeal recipes, I didn’t like the idea of egg in the oatmeal and imagined it having a custard-y texture—with one egg it isn’t noticeable and this recipe doesn’t have any egg at all. In this version, my favorite so far, I sauté the apples with the butter and cinnamon so its handy that the pan can be used like a skillet too. This is the one I have and love. I bought it when shooting the photos for my second cookbook—its perfect for the cauliflower bakes. I’ll show you the handy lid during our cooking class.
I will be talking through all the ways to make this next Friday February 27th @12:30pm please join me and cook along too if you like!
