ROOTS & WINGS

31. Pumpkin Pie Baked Oatmeal

This was indeed a yummy and nutritious breakfast / snack dish.

It's healthy because of pumpkin, oats and nuts. Spicy because of the various spices. Sweet enough due to a bit of two sugars.

Like "38. Snickerdoodle Loaf (pre-Christmas carbs)" , or "3. Banana Applesauce Breakfast Muffins CORRECTED" , it's again out of Tiffany & James Fraioli's Baking for Beginners.

And as the authors promise, it's made in a jiffy: throw the ingredients together, mix, and bake. Fäddisch!

However...

Please don't laugh at me now, but...

WHAT exactly IS this!?

It defies the German categorization of baked goods.

It is NOT:

– a bread,
– a roll,
– a muffin,
– a cookie,
– a cake/torte (= sweet),
– a savory (= pizza, flammkuchen, tarte), or
– a bar of any sort.

BUT: due to the veg + spices it's kinda savory, is eaten like a blondie, and due to Hi-nuts + oats resembles a muesli bar.

EGAL! I'm hairsplitting again, sorry.

It's yummy, and the perfect fall breakfast / snack... and that's all that counts. Right?

And now off to the kitchen, friends.




Serves: 4 servings Recipe.; 6 servings Me.

Prep Time: about 1 hr It took me a little longer as I made the pumpkin puree fresh.

Degree of Difficulty: Super-Easy




WE NEED


210 gr / 7 oz. / 1.5 US cups oats

250 gr / 8.75 oz. / 1 US cup pumpkin puree UN-sweetened, -flavored, or otherwise ruined.

180 ml / 6 US fl. oz. milk
100 gr / 3.5 oz. pecan nuts
56 gr / 2 oz. brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract OR: 1 pck. / 8 gr / 0.3 oz. vanilla sugar.

1 tsp cinnamon Be sure to use CEYLON cinnamon as the (cheaper) CASSIA cinnamon contains too much coumarin which at frequent use – like in MY case – can damage your liver

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg BEST is freshly ground from a whole nutmeg as then the whole aroma unfolds. NO comparison to bought.

1/4 ginger See above... but admittedly, I "fell short", using pre-ground ginger from my spice rack. (But I use whole nutmeg).

1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt




WE DO


1. Preheat oven to 180°C / 350°F and grease a 23 x 33 cm / 9 x 13 in. I used a 20 x 20 cm / 8 x 8 in tin... and lined it with baking paper, instead. That way you can easily lift the dish out of the tin after baking.

IF you make the pumpkin puree fresh, chop about 350 gr / 0.75 lb. pumpkin into 1cm / 0.5 in cubes, and cook on middle heat (maximum!) with about 45 ml / 1.5 US fl.oz. until soft – about 15-20 minutes. Puree it and let it cool off.


2. Put all ingredients into a large bowl, and stir until well-combined. Wooden spoon's good.


3. Fill the mixture into the tin, smooth it with a spatula and bake it for 30 minutes OR until golden-brown around the edges. Since every oven is different it can take longer / shorter


4. Remove the tin from the oven, let it cool slightly, and lift the Yum out of the tin, if you used baking paper instead of grease (spray).


5. Serve.

In the recipe they say with milk, but since there's NO picture, I don't know if the milk's poured on top or just drank with it. (Or with some heavy cream.)

Since it had a cake-y consistency, I just ate it as it was. Decide for yourselves.

ALSO: you can keep it in the fridge for up to four days.

I must admit that I "maxed out these 4 days – 4x breakfast + 2x after-sport snack – NOT because it didn't taste, but because it was so substantial and sated so quickly + efficiently!

And now...



Guten Hunger!