While we were in Pennsylvania, my sister bought some baked oatmeal from the
local store. It was SOOOO good! I had a hankering for some this morning, but with a large family with mostly young children, a sink I haven't seen the bottom of since I returned home, and a desire to keep everything as simple as possible, I had to create my own version. It only took a few minutes, really.
First, I like recipes with even measurements. For example, I prefer one stick of butter instead of 1/3 cup. Also, I like recipes that use lots of eggs. When you have 17 dozen eggs in the refrigerator and have learned that it costs more to sell them than it does to use them, well, your eggs tend to accumulate. Third, I like regular oatmeal instead of quick oats. And lastly, I don't like using a bunch of bowls to mix dry and wet ingredients separately, one big bowl for combining, and one baking dish. Like I said, we haven't recovered from my trip East yet, even with running the dishwasher twice a day! And you know you have a large family when you stop using 1 cup measuring
cups and start using large tupperware to scoop oatmeal out of a bucket!
I created my recipe by reading a bunch of recipes online and rounding measurements to suit my needs. This recipe makes one 9 by 13 pan.
Baked Oatmeal
- 6 cups oats
- raisins and cinnamon (or other fruit, use to taste)
- 1 stick butter
- 2 1/2 cups milk
- 4-5 eggs (depends on size of egg)
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 T baking powder
- 1/2 t salt
- 1 T vanilla
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease baking dish and layer oats, raisins, and cinnamon. Microwave butter in small bowl, using the wrapper to cover butter and eliminate splatter. While butter is melting, use Vitamix to blend the rest of ingredients. I add the milk first and use the measurements on the side of the canister. Pour butter in Vitamix and whirl a bit more. The butter is hot, so you need to pour while the mixer is running so the eggs don't cook prematurely (this is the "curdle" that happens in homemade puddings). Pour immediately over the oats in the baking dish and place in oven. Bake for 45 minutes or until center is set.
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| "Must...get...every...last...crumb!" |
Results of my experiment: Because I didn't soak the dish overnight like most recipes recommend, my baked oatmeal turned out more...oaty. Instead of the oak flakes being uniformly mushy, they tended to flake off, especially if they were on the top of the dish. So it looked more like cereal. However, my kids loved it (they aren't picky) and the dog loved the scraps! I'm going to make it again for tomorrow, but soak it overnight (which means I will make it during dinner prep so I don't have to be in the kitchen for extended hours!).
