Currently I’m obsessed with making and eating oatmeal, and I have to say … I’ve had worse obsessions (like brown butter anything). Last week I heard a coworker say he doesn’t really care for oatmeal. I scoffed at his remark, promptly went to the refrigerator, pulled out a container of my leftover oatmeal, heated it and plunked it down in his lap. He was a bit taken aback by my aggression toward his oatmeal aversion but took a bite anyway, and said, “This isn’t too bad.” Not too bad? It’s freaking phenomenal. Just sayin’.
I know what my coworker’s problem is. He doesn’t like the gluey or sometimes gummy texture of oatmeal. I get it completely, Dan! This oatmeal recipe is not your mother’s stove top oatmeal. First of all, it uses rolled oats. Rolled oats don’t disintegrate when cooking. Second of all, it’s baked – therefore it has a completely different texture. The finished product is actually quite dry and crumbly (if you want it to be).
Me? I don’t want dry, crumbly oatmeal. I add half-and-half to make it slightly creamy. No amount of milk or half-and-half added to these baked oats will yield gummy, gluey oatmeal.
ingredients.
- ½ c. butter, softened
- ¼ c. white sugar
- ½ c. brown sugar
- 1 c. creamy, natural peanut butter
- 3 eggs
- 2 bananas (ripened), mashed
- 1 c. milk
- pinch of cinnamon
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 T. baking powder
- 4 c. regular or quick-cooking oats
- 2 T. Vanilla Sugar
- warm milk or half-and-half (optional)
directions.
- Beat together the butter, sugars, peanut butter, banana and eggs. Mix in the cinnamon, salt, baking powder and oats. Beat well. Add the milk. Pour into a greased 8-inch square pan. Cover with foil and refrigerate overnight.
- In the morning, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Uncover the pan and sprinkle with vanilla sugar. Bake in preheated oven until firm, about 45 minutes. Serve hot with warm milk or half-and-half, if desired.
Perhaps my taste buds are off? To me this recipe yielded oatmeal with only a hint of peanut butter and banana. My sister begs to differ. She says it tastes very strongly of peanut butter, less so strongly of banana. You can always throw in another banana if you’d like a stronger banana flavor.
Recipe rating:
Food Snob 