Apple Pecan Baked Steel Cut Oatmeal

This baked pumpkin oatmeal from few months ago has become almost a weekly bake in my house. Everyone likes it and it’s as good warm as it is cold; my husband eats a bowl when he gets home from work so he can make it to dinner in a good mood (he gets hangry). I’m sort of over the pumpkin, though. I had exactly three Macintosh (great for baking but not for eating) apples so I thought I’d riff on the original, and it worked great! 

I left almost everything the same except for swapping chopped apples for the pumpkin and swapping cinnamon for pumpkin pie spice. Also, this needs to “set up” a bit longer than the pumpkin, so wait until it cools to dig in. One thing I liked was that this is even sweeter than the original, obviously because apples have more natural sugar than pumpkin. If you wanted to dial down the maple syrup you’d probably find the end result to be just sweet enough (though more maple syrup is never a bad move in my book, as I could drink it from a glass).

Now that I have the formula down, I’m dreaming up a strawberry rhubarb version. I’ll let you know how it goes!

Apple Pecan Baked Steel Cut Oatmeal

Makes 9×13

4 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted and cooled

2 eggs

2/3 c. maple syrup

4 c. lowfat milk or almond milk

2 tsp. vanilla

2 tsp. cinnamon

2 tsp. baking powder

1 1/2 tsp. kosher salt

3 macintosh apples, peeled, cored and diced

2 c. steel cut oats

1 c. pecans, roughly chopped

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Melt butter and set aside to cool.

2. Whisk cooled butter, eggs and maple syrup in a very large mixing bowl. Add milk, vanilla, cinnamon, baking powder and salt. Whisk to combine.

3. Add apples and oats – stir to combine.

4. Mist 9×13 baking dish with nonstick spray. Pour mixture into baking dish. Bake for 30 minutes in preheated oven.

5. Scatter nuts atop oats and bake for another 30 minutes at the same temperature.

6. Let cool until barely warm; cut and serve.