Prepeared

I was inspired to make this mini baked oatmeal after seeing this gorgeous recipe from Not Without Salt and reading Alana's post about the sometimes perplexing issues with pears and baking. For a few days I had pears on my mind, yet the pear sat in the bowl growing riper. Finally, as it felt cool last night, I decided this warm bake would have to be done the next day. As far as baked oatmeal goes, I've made the blueberry-banana-maple-walnut version in Super Natural Everyday before, and loved it. But here, brown sugar, pear (and my hazelnuts) I think take it up a few notches from any-season basic to fall sophisticate. They are like the deep brown booties I just bought at JC Penny after forcing myself to throw out my beaten black basic booties which looked and felt like they'd been to battle and back (aka the NYC streets).

This oatmeal is easy to put together and enjoy as it is, but is even more so if you take a few steps beforehand. Luckily I've done the main one for you: scale it down to a smaller serving. I don't know about you but sometimes the one thing that stops me from following a specific breakfast recipe is the fact that it often serves 6 people. Other things: the pear, for example, can be set on the table, bruise side up, so you make sure the dish happens the next day : ) Secondly, you can toast nuts and mix your dry ingredients in bowls both for the oats and the topping and leave it covered on the counter overnight so in the morning you'll just preheat the oven, melt some butter, mix some milk, egg and vanilla, slice the pear, "tuck" it in (thanks, NWS) and pop it in to bake. I scaled down this recipe a lot- basically divided it by four, and baked it in  this little dish, so it also cooked more quickly. I'll reflect that in the recipe below as well as some adaptions that I found easier to deal with when working with small batches. Hope you're enjoying the chillier mornings (I like to think of it as invigorating). Have a great week everyone : )


Roast Pear + Hazelnut Baked Oatmeal for One (Or 2 as a side?)
Adapted from NWS 


1/2 cup rolled oats
1 Tablespoon brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
Small pinch each cloves + nutmeg and optionally (and lovely), a small pinch fresh chopped rosemary
1/8 teaspoon  salt
1/2 cup whole milk
1/4 of a beaten egg (this is 12 grams)
*1.5 tsp tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 small pear, cored, cut in 4 slices

Crumble Topping
2 Tablespoons hazelnuts, toasted, skinned and chopped roughly
*1 tsp butter, melted
pinch salt
3/4 tsp brown sugar

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees and place a scant *1 T butter in the baking dish and into the oven. When it is melted, pour the butter into a small bowl to reserve for your oats and topping, making sure the sides of the baking dish are moistened

In a small bowl, combine oats, baking powder, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, rosemary and salt. Stir together. (Note: I did this the night before)
Pour this mixture into the buttered dish.

For the crumble: combine nuts, salt, and sugar (night before)

In the morning, in another bowl, combine the  milk, egg, 1.5 tsp of the reserved melted butter and vanilla. Whisk together completely. Slowly pour this over the oats.
Tuck the pears into the oats.

Take 1 tsp of the melted butter and mix with the crumble mixture. Pour the mixture over the oats/pears.

Bake for about 25 minutes, until the center is cooked through and the crumble is deep golden and caramelized. Let cool at least 5-10 minutes.

Serve with whatever you fancy but I opted to mix a little honey and cinnamon into the leftover melted butter bowl and drizzled atop.

Enjoy!