Oats have been getting lots of press lately – one of those super foods, lowers your cholesterol, they say.  Well, I don’t know whether the health benefits live up to the hype – but this baked oatmeal recipe sure does.  I really didn’t know what to expect the first time I tried baked oatmeal – I was away on the beaches of Delaware during the off-season for a work event, and on this chilly fall morning we opted to go find a hot breakfast rather than eat the hotel standard fruit offering.  The picturesque little coffee shop across the street turned out to be well known for its baked oatmeal bars, and so I figured I would give one a try.  It was love at first bite.  The chewy sweet goodness covered in steaming hot milk warmed me up so well I nearly forgot it was October by the coast. 

Now that fall is coming around the corner once again, it was the perfect time to break out the rolled oats and make my own.  The recipe I found called for dried fruit which I didn’t have – I instead substituted some frozen berries I happened to have on hand (at my husband/food critic’s suggestion) and this was probably the best decision I made.  Little did I know how well raspberries would taste baked into oatmeal!  You certainly could substitute other fruit – pears, apples, and peaches all come to mind – but give it a try with some berries on these days where you still crave those summer berry flavors, but with a little bit of the fall baked in.  Serve your baked oatmeal warm from the oven, topped with some steamed milk, and you will have a toasty warm breakfast to brighten up your fall weekend.

Baked Berry Oatmeal – modified from Blanchl, Baked Oatmeal II on allrecipes.com

Ingredients:

• 3 cups rolled oats
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup milk
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup melted butter
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup frozen blueberries, straight from the freezer
• 3/4 cup frozen raspberries, straight from the freezer

• Instructions:

  Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Mix together oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.  Add eggs, milk, melted butter, and vanilla extract and stir until well combined.  Gently fold in frozen berries.  Spread the batter (which will be fairly thick) into a 9×13 inch baking dish, and bake for 40 minutes or until the top is lightly golden.  To serve, slice into squares and top with steamed milk.  Enjoy!

I had wanted to make blueberry muffins for quite awhile. About a month ago, my grocery store advertised what seemed to be an excellent sale on fresh blueberries, blackberries and strawberries. I was thrilled about the prospect of making luscious blueberry muffins, but disappointed when I laid eyes upon the tiniest carton of fresh berries I had ever seen! Since the quantity didn’t seem worth the price, I walked away. After finishing up at the grocery store, I hit the Target next door to complete my grocery shopping. While wandering the frozen food section, I saw that frozen berries were on sale. On a whim, I picked up a bag of blueberries… and promptly forgot about it.

I finally used the frozen berries when my mother joined me for tea on a recent afternoon. I wanted a something freshly-baked to serve with our Lady Grey tea, so I scoured my Google Reader for a fun recipe. I initially saw these muffins on Dinner & Dessert, but found the actual recipe text here. This recipe comes from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours. I’m looking forward to checking out other recipes from this cookbook.

I made the recipes during my lunch break (on of the benefits of working from home!) and was pleased at how quickly they came together. Since the butter had to cool after being heated, I melted it before I started working on juicing and zesting the orange. The juice and zest add a lovely citrus punch. It’s a fun change from your typical blueberry muffin. The muffins themselves are soft, buttery and moist.

Apparently, my husband really liked these muffins! First thing Saturday morning, Mike I had a conversation that went like this:

Mike: So, what’s for breakfast today?

Beth: Toast…eggs…something like that. The usual.

Mike: We’re not having those orange blueberry muffins? I thought you said you were making them.

Beth: <puzzled look>

Mike: Oh, I must have dreamed that.

Here’s the muffin that’s good enough to dream about:

Orange Blueberry Muffins

Yields 12 muffins

Grated zest and juice of 1 orange
About 3/4 cup buttermilk*
2 large eggs
3 tablespoons honey
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/3 cup sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup blueberries – fresh, preferably, or frozen (not thawed)

Decorating sugar, for topping (optional)

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Butter or spray the 12 molds in a regular-size muffin pan or fit the molds with paper muffin cups. Alternatively, use a silicone muffin pan, which needs neither greasing nor paper cups. Place the muffin pan on a baking sheet.

Pour the orange juice into a large glass measuring cup or a bowl and pour in enough buttermilk to make 1 cup. Whisk in the eggs, honey and melted butter.

In a large bowl, rub the sugar and orange zest together with your fingertips until the sugar is moist and the fragrance of orange strong. Whisk in the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and, with the whisk or a rubber spatula, gently but quickly stir to blend. Don?t worry about being thorough – the batter will be lumpy and bubbly, and that?s just the way it should be. Stir in the blueberries. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.

Bake for 22 to 25 minutes. If you want to top the muffins with decorating sugar, sprinkle on the sugar after the muffins have baked for 10 minutes. When fully baked, the tops of the muffins will be golden and springy to the touch and a thin knife inserted into the center of the muffins will come out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool for 5 minutes before carefully removing each muffin from its mold.

*I did 1 tbsp vinegar then fill up to the 1 cup line with milk. Then I used this mixture for the required buttermilk.