Baked Oatmeal with Pumpkin & Pears ♥ Recipe

Baked Oatmeal with Pumpkin & Pears
Today's healthy breakfast recipe: Oatmeal baked with pumpkin plus fall fruit, pumpkin-pie spices and nuts. There's just enough pumpkin for color and moisture without making the oatmeal dense and heavy.

Come October 1, American-based food blogs take on a fevered orange tinge – pumpkin orange, that is – as we go cra-zee for pumpkin recipes. I have my own collection, My Favorite Pumpkin Recipes but am always happy to add another! "Never look a gift pumpkin in the face," I say, especially when it's a healthy pumpkin recipe. :-)

The last few weeks, I've been made one pan of Easy Baked Oatmeal after another, twice with blueberries and bananas, twice with apples and pears (and the all-important bananas), then twice more with pumpkin and pears (and more bananas). It took some tweaking to get the right amount of pumpkin and pumpkin-pie-type spices and the baking time right, but the last batch was just excellent.

What makes Baked Oatmeal so good is, first, the oats, there's a lot of them and the texture is totally about the oats. But they're barely sweet - I made it with sorghum (my favorite), maple syrup, honey and even one of those sugar-free syrups people put in their coffee, all were excellent. Still, the fruit adds such a critical dimension of both sweetness and texture, the bananas on the bottom, the soft fruit throughout the oats. The nuts, too, some in the oats, some on top, what great texture contrast. So yes I'm really high on this recipe, it's the first time, I think, that I've published two variations of the same recipe on both Kitchen Parade and A Veggie Venture.

But then again, you might just chalk it up to, you know, Pumpkin Fever.

RECIPE for BAKED OATMEAL with PUMPKIN & PEARS

Hands-on time: 25 minutes
Time to table: 90 minutes
Serves 9

OAT MIXTURE
1 large egg
1-1/2 cups (185g) buttermilk or skim milk
1 cup (235g) pumpkin purée
1/3 cup (105g) sweetener (see NOTES)
2 tablespoons (30g) melted butter
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups (190g) old-fashioned oatmeal
1/4 cup (30g) chopped toasted walnuts (don’t skip)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/16 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon table salt
2 ripe pears, skins on, chopped in small pieces (save aside about half to slice for the top)

TO COMBINE
2 ripe bananas, cut in small chunks
Oatmeal Mixture
Sliced pears
1/4 cup (30g) chopped toasted walnuts
2 tablespoons raw sugar

TO SERVE
Warm maple syrup or half & half, optional

Preheat oven to 375F. Butter an 8x8 or 9x9 baking dish. (If you’re doubling the recipe, double the ingredients and use a 9x13 pan.)

OAT MIXTURE In a large bowl, whisk the egg, then whisk in the milk, pumpkin, sweetener, butter and vanilla. Stir in the oatmeal, 1/4 cup toasted walnuts, baking powder, spices and salt. Stir in chopped pear.

TO COMBINE Arrange the banana pieces in the bottom of baking dish, cover with Oat Mixture. Arrange pear slices decoratively on top, sprinkle with ¼ cup toasted walnuts and raw sugar.

BAKE Bake uncovered for 50 – 60 minutes until top is golden and oat mixture has set. Let cool for 5 – 10 minutes.

TO SERVE Cut into nine pieces, serve warm plain or drizzled with a little warm maple syrup or my favorite for temperature contrast, half & half.

LEFTOVERS Cover and refrigerate, this may look like "cake" but it's not. Rewarms beautifully in the microwave in 30 seconds.

ALANNA's TIPS & KITCHEN NOTES
SWEETENER - I'm partial to sorghum but have also used maple syrup, honey and even a sugar-free almond syrup. All work!



A Veggie Venture - Printer Friendly Recipe Graphic



Still Hungry?


KITCHEN PARADE, my food column LAST WEEK
Easy Baked Oatmeal with Apples & Walnuts

ST LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, my restaurant-recipe column LAST WEEK
Companion Cornbread from Companion

EAT VEGETABLES IN SEASON: THIS WEEK, 2005 - 2011
Greens & Stems with Mustard Pumpkin Dip Carrots with Honey & Vinegar Squash & Pear Soup Slow-Roasted Tomato Soup Broccoli with Fennel Food Blogging in the Real World Braised Cauliflower with Curry & Yogurt Butternut Squash with Maple Glaze Spicy Sweet Pumpkin Seeds Microwave Baked Potato Sweet 'n' Sour Cabbage Whole Pumpkin Baked with Custard Pumpkin Dip Roasted Garlic Soup Pumpkin Hummus with Honey (< just look at all the pumpkin recipes!)

MORE FAVORITE PUMPKIN RECIPES
~ My Favorite Pumpkin Recipes ~

~ How to Roast a Whole Pumpkin ~
~ Pumpkin Hummus with Honey ~
~ Pumpkin Corn Bread ~
~ Stuffed Pumpkin with Apple & Cranberry ~
~ more pumpkin recipes ~
from A Veggie Venture

~ Autumn Pumpkin Bread ~
~ Perfect Whole Wheat Pumpkin Muffins ~
~ Fall Stew Baked in a Whole Pumpkin ~
~ more pumpkin recipes ~
from Kitchen Parade, my food column

A Veggie Venture is home of 'veggie evangelist' Alanna Kellogg and the
famous asparagus-to-zucchini Alphabet of Vegetables.
© Copyright Kitchen Parade 2012


Alanna Kellogg
Alanna Kellogg

A Veggie Venture is home of "veggie evangelist" Alanna Kellogg and the famous asparagus-to-zucchini Alphabet of Vegetables.

Comments

  1. baked oatmeal is my favorite! this sounds fab!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I have yet to make baked oatmeal and really need to get on this! Looks amazing. The perfect fall breakfast!

    ReplyDelete
  3. This sounds great but I was wondering why the bananas? I can't eat bananas so I want to make sure they don't have a purpose except that you enjoy them.
    Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Natalie ~ It is, it really is!

    Katherine ~ Yes, it strikes me as "very fall" too.

    ApotheCaring ~ I do happen to really love the bananas here, they add another layer of flavor, a contrast in texture and some sweetness too. Could you make the Baked Oatmeal without? Yes ... but I might chop up an apple for the bottom layer. Let me know how it goes!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I may be missing this, but I don't see pumpkin included in the steps. I am guessing mix in with the oats and pears?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Unknown ~ So sorry for slow reply, I was away from my computer plus am having phone issues and couldn’t reply on my phone. Darn technology!

    Thanks for letting me know that the pumpkin is missing in the instructions, I’ve fixed that now. But one thing you can count on with my recipes is that the order of ingredients is very very specific, so that if an ingredient “happens” to be missing in the instructions (which of course with proofing it shouldn’t be) you’ll be able to tell from the order of the ingredients!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thank you for taking a moment to write! I read each and every comment, for each and every recipe, whether a current recipe or a long-ago favorite. If you have a specific question, it's nearly always answered quick-quick. ~ Alanna