Slow Cooker Oatmeal

A big steaming bowl of oatmeal just hits the spot sometimes. I could eat oatmeal almost everyday. I usually have a box of instant oatmeal stashed in my desk at work for those days when I only have five minutes to eat and didn't bring anything.

I've seen and heard about steel cut oats for years, but this is the first time I've had them. Surprising, given my love for oatmeal. I put this in my crock pot before I went to bed, and woke up to a bowl of comfort food just waiting for me to dig in.

Slow Cooker Oatmeal 

1 cup steel cut oats
3 cups liquid (I used 1 coconut milk + 2 cups water for a creamy oatmeal. Almond, soy, etc., or all water would work well too)
salt
mix-ins (I used cinnamon, 1 tsp of gingeroot, minced, raisins, almond slivers, and then topped with chia seeds)

Put the oats, milk and/or water, salt, and any other mix-ins you want cooked in a crock pot. I put in the raisins so they would be nice and plump, ginger, almonds and cinnamon. Cook on low for three hours. I topped my with chia seeds for some extra omega 3s.

This makes about four servings. I put the leftover in a silicon muffin tin and baked on 350 degrees for 40 minutes. It's still moist, but is muffin shaped and will be great for breakfast this week.

I'm already looking forward to trying different combinations: cranberry, strawberries and cream, pumpkin in the fall, peanut butter and jelly. I'll probably end up with some pretty funky ones.

Buttermilk Oatmeal Muffins

Using up the remains of my sister's kitchen before the move, we made a whole army of cookies and a delicious raspberry pound cake. All good stuff, but nothing that seemed like breakfast this morning.

Plus, I just read an article on BBC about how sugar ages your skin. Oh mon dieu, if they're right, I'm going to look ninety soon!

Soaking the oats in buttermilk turns it to oatmeal pre-baking and helps incorporate them into the muffin batter. A great little technique. I'm wondering what else I can use it in. These muffins are not too sweet, making them perfect for a little honey or fruit preserves.

Buttermilk Oatmeal Muffins
1 cup oats
1 cup buttermilk
1 egg
1/3 packed brown sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp ground flax seed
2/3 cup raspberry, fresh or frozen

Mix the oats and buttermilk and let set 15 minutes. In a separate bowl, combine dry ingredients. Add egg, sugar and oil to oat mixture and blend. Blend in dry ingredients, then gently fold in raspberries. Bake at 400 degrees F for 15-17 minutes.

twd ~ Oatmeal Nutmeg Scones & Maple Cornmeal Biscuits

I'm so excited for this weekend. Not only is it long weekend (yay federal holidays!) but I will get to bake up Oatmeal Nutmeg Scones and Maple Cornmeal Biscuits for one of my good friend's baby shower! This is the first baby shower I've ever helped host, and I'm both nervous, feeling like I'm forgetting something, and excited because I know it's going to be a fabulous time!

We decided on brunch for the menu. So in addition to the scones and biscuits, there will be grits, egg & artichoke pie, home-style potatoes, fruit, mimosas, and muffins.

Both the scones and the biscuits were super easy to mix up. I was pleasantly surprised. They are currently sitting in my freezer, awaiting the big day. Hopefully they'll bake up wonderfully light and delish!

twd ~ Chocolate Oatmeal Drops

A big thank you to Caroline and Claire of Bake With Us for this week’s twd pick! These were amazing! One of the reasons I love baking along is that I make things I otherwise wouldn’t. Kugelhopf anyone? Or how about Cottage Cheese Pufflets?

Usually, I like what I make. There’s a rarely a time when I don’t, and then you can make a safe bet that I messed up the recipe somehow. But very rarely will I actually make things again, not when there are so many new recipes and old favorites. These however, are going into the old favorites file very quickly!

I knew I would like these just looking at the ingredient list. I love chocolate cookies with oats, and these have both cocoa and melted chocolate. Very chocolaty! They have a great texture, crispy on the outside like chocolate chip cookies, but very fudgy in the middle. I took them to a Super Bowl party and they disappeared pretty quickly. It was hard keeping my spoon out of the dough! These are delish pre-baked and baked!

Homemade Bread Take 1: Simple Oatmeal Bread

The other weekend I put in a few hours at an annual fundraiser sale put on by my Junior League. I noticed a West Bend bread machine that no one had picked up. By the end of the day, it was still there - and discounted 75%. Well, that sealed the deal. I took it home for $2.50.

A woman who works next door let me borrow her book. This is my first attempt. I didn't use bread flour, which has more protein and gluten, just regular ol' all-purpose flour and I think the taste will improve a lot with bread flour. It was still good, especially toasted with a nice slathering of butter.



Simple Oatmeal Bread, adapted from Bread Machine Baking by Lora Brody & Millie Apter

2/3 water
2 teaspoons butter
2 teaspoons molasses
2 teaspoons brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 old-fashoined oats
1 1/2 white flour
1 1/2 teaspoons yeast

twd ~ Oatmeal Breakfast Bread

Natalie of Oven Love picked Oatmeal Breakfast Bread for this week's TWD.



I knew I was going to love this. I love oatty things, and this one has raisins and cinnamon and a lovely brown sugar topping. Breakfast breads with toppings are just better. My favorite is one that has coconut, butter, and sugar for banana bread. They need to start making bread tops, and add them to the pastry cases right beside the muffin tops.



This bread is quite dense and uses applesauce in the batter. It’s quite good. If you need evidence, I baked it for a work celebration honoring two of our employees that have been with us for 10 years, and all that remained afterwards were a few crumbs. 10 years...wow!

Oh Wow Raw Oatmeal

I've been trying to watch what I eat lately, trying to get my waistline back in shape. A couple of years ago, I did the raw food diet for a couple of months and lost some poundage. So I pulled out Ani Phyo's Raw Food Kitchen. Some of her breakfast recipes use oat groats. I found oat groats in the bulk section of Whole Foods. I got about 2 cups and rinsed and soaked them overnight. The groats then go into a food processor with add-ins. I plopped in almonds, wheat germ, cinnamon, ginger, and agave. Whirl and add water or milk to desired consistency. If you use regular milk like I did, it's not raw anymore. There are plenty of milk subs or water will work.

twd: Oatmeal Almost Candy Bars

This recipe caught my eye on my first flip-through of Dorie's cookbook.

Oatmeal, chocolate, peanuts, raisins - did someone say candy bar?

Instead of using a regular pan and cutting bars, I layered the mixture in a cupcake pan. It worked perfectly for individual treats.

Its really good. Though mine needed more chocolate in the middle. It all seemed to disappear during baking.