When the skies are constantly grey and the sun is setting earlier, and earlier, it is hard to get out of bed.
Since getting into food photography, where natural light is crucial, I’ve realised that I really require lots of natural light to thrive. It’s probably partially because of vitamin D production (apparently vitamin D deficiency is actually so much of an epidemic in the UK, we’ve started adding it to our bread). This summer, it became especially apparent how much sunlight affects me; I found that leaving the curtains open was a surefire way to awaken me at 6 am with no chance of falling asleep again. It was weird because I’ve always been a night-owl / committed lover of lie-ins.
See, now that it’s November and I’m living in ‘The North’ it’s once again a challenge to get my booty out of bed and into lectures. This is why the weekends are so great. I can get up at 10, make a leisurely breakfast of baked oatmeal, and then sit in bed eating it and watching damages.
As I don’t really eat pears at other times of year, I bought a punnet to use in this variation of baked oatmeal. When thinking this up, I was going to just go with just chopped hazelnuts and dates at first. Then I realised it would be foolish to not get some dark chocolate in there too. If I was pushing this even more into dessert-central, I’d probably add a blob of nutella as well 😉
Pinhead oats are my obvious obsession at the moment. I’d only baked porridge containing old-fashioned oats before but I figured that doing the same to pinhead oats would be just as good. The only slight annoyance is that you need to soak the grains the night before so they take less time to bake but this pre-planning does kind of speed up prep in the morning.
Notes:
– ensure the chocolate is vegan, if required
– ensure the oats are certified gluten-free, if required
Baked Pear, Chocolate & Hazelnut Oatmeal {Vegan, GF}
Print PinIngredients
- 1/4 cup (45g) pinhead oats
- 2 tbsp quinoa , (or another 2tbsp/22g of pinhead oats)
- 1 tbsp chia seeds
- 1 cup (250ml) water
- a pinch of salt
- a large pinch of coconut sugar or 1 pitted , , mashed date
- a few pieces of dark chocolate , , chopped
- 1 pear , , cored and thinly sliced
- 55 grams of hazelnuts , , chopped
Instructions
- Soak the oats, quinoa and chia seeds in water overnight in a jug.
- In the morning, preheat the oven to 180 C (350 F). Stir the salt and sugar (or mashed date) into the oats and pour into a small, greased skillet or baking tin. Decorate with the chopped chocolate, sliced pear and chopped hazelnuts.
- Bake for 30-40 minutes until all the liquid has been absorbed, the surface looks dry and the oats are cooked.
- Eat warm!
This looks like such a perfect weekend breakfast! I love the addition of the dollops of melty chocolate!
Absolutely gorgeous !
I love so much baked oatmeal, I have to make it more often 😀
Yum, this looks so good!
xo, Liz
http://lipstickandconfetti.com
oh whoa- i live in california, so we’re all focused on the drought rather than a lack of vitamin d (it’s so weird for me to think about that!). and i make my mornings leisurely- i’ve taken to skipping my math class (i swear going makes me more confused), and i have plenty of time for baked oatmeal and lots of snooze button usage (:
This looks PHENOMENAL! Definitely going to give it a try! x
Madeleine, The Daily Mark
That looks absolutely divine! My mouth is watering just looking at the picture!
Sally ~ DiagonSally
I completely know what you mean with the sun. I find the days have just gotten so short – and photography time so fleeting. I take comfort in the fact that we’re almost at the lowest point (yay Christmas!), and things will only get better from here.
This makes for such a gorgeous presentation!
Sunshine is vital to both photographers and food! I heard the RDA for vitamin D is so low the average person gets it after only two minutes of exposure to the sun (and the recommended time by doctors and nutritionists is at least an hour a day!)
Baked oatmeal is something I can make myself get up for in the morning 🙂
This is so pretty!!
Izy, Yummmm! Baked oatmeal is one of my absolute favorite breakfasts and this looks delish! Your styling is totally gorgeous!
This is why I can’t live in places with no light, like extreme north or south! It’s getting dark at 5:30pm here and I can’t stand it!
Oh that looks so yummy! 🙂
Ahhh!! I like plain oatmeal a lot so I bet I’m going to love it even more when I eat it like this <3
I hate winter time for that reason. I always seem to need more sleep, while I can easily wake up before six in the summer, getting myself out of the bed before eight without having an intense internal battle is rare. I could still survive the darkness if there would be sun and blue sky after it, but there is only an eternal greyness. Anyway, this meal would definitely help to get my bum out of the bed faster.
wow this looks delicious! Im going to pin it to make later!!
Chec my blog for some recipes!
http://thepaletteoflife.blogspot.com
Hey absolutely love this! Just a quick wondering…what course at uni are you doing and where?? only because I’m currently at the stage of applying and want to do a similar thingy. x
Thank you! I’m doing Food Science & Nutrition at the University of Leeds 🙂
Hey hey, Izy! It’s been far too long since I last left a comment in your lovely space; this recipe looks delicious and your photos are GORGEOUS, as per usual. Hope you’re doing well! xx
So – would all the directions pretty much stay the same if I wanted to double this? Just double the ingredients, use a larger pan? I am thinking the answer is yes and am looking forward to trying it.
I think so! May take slightly longer to bake, but it’s pretty forgiving and easy to judge in that aspect 🙂
Wow girl, this looks amazing! I love the idea of pear, chocolate and hazelnuts together in an oatmeal bake for breakfast! Making this over te Thanksgiving weekend when my parents are in town! 🙂
What a fantastic meal to kick start the day!
Just made this this morning on a cold, rainy day… Took the first bite and had to make a comment. This is such a perfectly delicious combination! I had to use almonds because I couldn’t find a nutcracker for the hazelnuts in my house, but will definitely try them when I inevitably make this again!
This looks like the best oatmeal ever (and vegan!)
Thanks for sharing, I’ll definitely try this!
thebrunettetofu.blogspot.pt
i love so much baked oatmeal but i dont know the recipe now i know thanks