Vegan Baked Oatmeal with Peanut Butter & Jam

Porridge will always be one of my favorite breakfast dishes. It's quickly prepared, healthy, versatile, and most importantly, filling. But if you think this recipe is just one of "many" porridge recipes, I have to disappoint you as we will bake our oatmeal today. I’ll tell you in detail what advantages this has, plus, how you can adjust, prepare, and preserve it. This recipe is sweet, salty, perfect to eat right away or to take away, and above all, simple and quick – and maybe soon one of your favorite breakfast dishes as well?

1) The consistency

I love the consistency of porridge. Creamy, soft, and warm oatmeal is the ideal breakfast for me, especially in the cold months. But of course, I also understand that some people can't warm up to the texture. But when baked, porridge loses moisture and, therefore, some of its "stickiness". So if you don't have a problem with oatmeal per se but just don't like the mushy consistency, you might be spot on with baked oats.

2) The quantity

Baked oatmeal is a great choice if you want to prepare breakfast or brunch for many people or if you want to bring something as a guest. Our recipe is enough for about six to eight servings. You can, of course, scale it down and use a smaller casserole dish accordingly. However, I like to prepare a large portion to already check off breakfast for the next few days!

4) Seasonal and Regional

Depending on the season, you can adjust the produce for your baked oatmeal. In summer, you can top it with fresh berries (and bake them, for example), and in winter, you can use apples and pears. You could also prepare the jam yourself, depending on the season. A homemade cherry or plum jam in late summer would be very delicious, just to give you some ideas. So let’s get creative!

5) Convenient to prepare and take away

Baked oatmeal is great to prepare in advance and to take away. Just mix it up and store it in the fridge the night before. Then, the next morning, you only have to pop the casserole dish in the oven. Once it has cooled down completely, you can cut it into pieces and transport it perfectly in any kind of container or jar.

6) Preservation

If you have any leftovers, you can freeze the individual pieces and bake them again later. Just be sure to remember to cut the baked oatmeal into smaller pieces and freeze them individually – this way, they can be reheated in the oven much faster. If you re-bake the entire casserole, you might find that the outsides are already a bit dry when the insides are still frozen. In addition, you also save some space in the freezer (which is sacred to us, as you know)!

For our recipe, we used Demeter Hot Oat Berry Porridge from Bauckhof. In addition to rolled oats, the mixture includes various berries such as currants, blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, and raspberries. Since we top our baked oatmeal with jam for serving, the Hot Oat Berry mixture fits the recipe perfectly. The oatmeal is made in Germany and bears the FairBio logo as a sign of fairness in domestic organic food. It stands for short transport routes, transparency, and long-term, partnership-based relationships. By the way, the oatmeal doesn’t contain the usual rolled oat. They are specially processed for the oatmeal which helps to give your porridge, casserole, or whatever you cook with it a wonderfully almost fluffy and creamy consistency.