Roasted pear ginger cranberry baked oatmeal is like dessert for breakfast. The autumn-holiday flavors in Joanne Chang‘s roasted pear ginger cranberry crostini (from her excellent Flour cookbook) really inspired me here.
Baked oatmeal is my favorite breakfast because it’s convenient, filling, and easy to meal prep. I wouldn’t bother eating a relatively-wholesome breakfast if hadn’t already prepared it, in the fridge, ready to go first thing in the morning.
I don’t ever reheat this — I just grab it from the fridge and eat it cold. You, however, can reheat this if you want. I suspect that baked oatmeal reheats particularly well.
Here’s a tip, a huge shortcut that I love to use (ok, the plastic tube is landfill waste, but…). I like to use this ginger paste from Gourmet Garden for when I don’t feel like peeling and grating fresh ginger root. Not shilling, but should probably figure out how to get them to pay me for posting this! I keep a tube of this in my fridge at all times, and I use it a lot because it’s such a time-saving shortcut.
Roasted Pear Ginger Cranberry Baked Oatmeal
Ingredients
- 1 20oz can canned pears
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 1½ cups unsweetened applesauce
- ½ cup brown sugar
- ¼ cup liquid egg whites
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoon grated fresh ginger root
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 cup milk of your choice
- 2 cups uncooked old fashioned rolled oats
- 1 cup whole cranberries (fresh or frozen)
Instructions
- Drain and rinse the can of pears. Chop the pears into ½-inch cubes.
- Put the pears in a saucepan over medium heat with 1 tablespoon of brown sugar. Stir the pears and sugar together and cook over medium heat until the pears have browned up a little and most of the liquid has evaporated. Set aside. (this step can be done ahead of time.)
- Preheat the oven to 375 °F. Lightly spray an 8-inch baking dish with nonstick spray.
- Whisk the applesauce and ½ cup of brown sugar together.
- Whisk in the egg and liquid egg whites.
- Whisk in the grated ginger, baking powder, salt and vanilla extract.
- Stir in the milk
- Stir in the oats.
- Stir in the cranberries.
- Pour the whole thing into your prepared baking dish. Bake for 45 minutes, or until a knife or toothpick inserted into the center of the oatmeal comes out clean. If you're using frozen cranberries, you might need to bake this for up to an hour, so keep an eye on it!
