Cranberry baked oatmeal to begin 2013

Do you ever end up with an unexpected windfall of food? When we were up in New England for Christmas my mother-in-law foisted several large bags of oats onto us after she accidentally ordered a case on Amazon rather than a bag.  So now I have about six pounds of gluten-free oats in my pantry. Lucky me, because just before the holidays I tried out a new recipe for baked oatmeal. You know, I never really understood baked oatmeal until this year. I mean, it's oatmeal. You can make it into granola or do something simple like cook it with a little butter on the stove-top. Traditional porridge is actually fine by me. But then I saw a recipe for baked oatmeal with roasted pears over at Not Without Salt. I tried it on a whim one weekend morning; all my previous suspicions about fancying up oatmeal vanished. That recipe is really good.

I've now made baked oatmeal four times since the beginning of December; I imagine most of those bags of oats will be used up making more. I have not been using the above-mentioned recipe these past couple of times, though I keep the general ratio of wet to dry ingredients the same. What's life without a little variety, after all?  This New Year's morning I've got a simple recipe for cranberry baked oatmeal for you, based loosely on the one from Not Without Salt. It's good for a lazy morning, and has a pleasant tartness from the cranberries to wake you up and ring in the New Year.

Cranberry baked oatmeal, based loosely on this recipe  (serves 6)
gluten- and dairy-free

2 cups gluten-free rolled oats
1 tsp baking powder
pinch sea salt
1 Tbsp ground flaxseed (optional)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground allspice

1 14-oz can full-fat coconut milk (about 1 1/2 cups)
1/2 cup water
2 Tbsp coconut oil, melted
1 large egg
1/4 cup maple syrup

1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries

Preheat oven to 375F.  Grease a 9-inch cake pan with coconut oil. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine the dry ingredients. Pour into the prepared pan. In the same bowl, combine the wet ingredients. Whisk until well-combined. Carefully pour the wet ingredients over the oat mixture, making sure it's well-distributed. Evenly scatter the cranberries over the surface of the oats.   Bake for 45 minutes. Remove from the oven and serve with additional coconut milk or yogurt if desired.