Pears are one helluva under-rated fruit.
I mean apples are like the most beloved fruit in all of the land. And everyone adores oranges thanks to orange juice. Aaaaand I needn’t explain how banana-crazy our nation is. We could all live off apple crisp, banana bread, and orange juice alone, no?
Pears are like the forgotten fruit. They’re sweet and tasty and pack as much fiber as an apple, but what are pears known for…their curvalicious bods?
When a pear goes all mushy on me, I want nothing to do with it. Same goes for men. But give me a perfectly firm, sweet pear and I am SO in.
Same goes for men.
I mean do you ever notice how easily they bruise? The pears, that is. Clearly we’re not talking about men here.
It’s like a cry for help. Maybe everyone should start showing pears some lovin’ so they can toughen up a little bit! In all honesty, I don’t cook with pears very often. I usually buy them for the sole purpose of snacking for when I get sick of sliced apples with cinnamon.
Regardless, pears are totally delish in their own right. And bee-tee-dubs, if you’ve never tried the juicy pear sorbet from Jeni’s ice cream, you should stop reading this immediately and go plant your face into the biggest scoop you can find. It’s like a textural foodgasm to the nine billionth degree. << understatement
When it comes to oats, steel-cut is the next best thing to the whole oat groat itself. Steel cut oats are the least processed and thus take the longest to cook. To cook ’em up quick, give this Easy Make-Ahead Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal a whirl. Old-fashioned oats are the next best thing, followed lastly by instant oats.
Those cook up super fast since they’re broken down more in processing. Remember, we want to stay as close to the whole food as possible! Ahem, steel-cut oats.
Oats are a great thing to buy in bulk. You should also buy some cardamom in bulk. It’s one of those spices that I hardly ever use, but I knew I wanted it for this recipe. I put maybe a teaspoon in a little baggie at the Whole Foods bulk spice bins and it was literally free. Like, it didn’t weight enough to cost anything. Allllll the free cardamom. Score.
Now I know it probably seems kind of weird to put something in the oven for forty minutes when it’s only for one person, but I think we all deserve a little personal treat once in a while, dontcha think? You could certainly double or quadruple this recipe and bake in in the appropriate pan to serve more people.
I also think it would work super well in the crockpot if you quadrupled the recipe! Now how fab would THAT be to wake up to?
Speaking of waking up, do you ever jolt awake from those awkward twitches at night? It seems that everyone has come down with a bad case of awkward twitches lately. Sometimes you’re falling off a bike. Sometimes you’re swan-diving off a cliff. They’re the worst. SO embarrassing.
And obviously you always come down with the worst case of awkward sleeping twitches when you’re not sleeping solo. Like sometimes your boyfriend is dreaming about God knows what and accidentally socks you in the face with his awkward twitch.
I didn’t have the pleasure of experiencing that reality myself, but a dear friend of mine did. Poor thing. Her mortified boyfriend, I mean.
Awkward twitches are nothing some fall-spiced pear oatmeal can’t fix.
Chai Spiced Pear Baked Steel-Cut Oatmeal
- Prep Time: 5 min
- Cook Time: 43 min
- Total Time: 48 minutes
- Yield: 1 1x
- Category: Breakfast
- Method: Oven
Description
A comforting and healthy Chai Spiced Pear Baked Oatmeal breakfast that tastes just like chai tea!
Ingredients
- 1 small ripe pear, cored and diced
- 1/2 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
- 1 tsp ground flaxseed
- 1 tsp pure maple syrup
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/8 tsp ground ginger
- 1/8 tsp cardamom
- pinch of cloves
- pinch of salt
- 1/4 cup steel-cut oats
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400F. Spray a ramekin or small oven-proof baking dish wish cooking spray. Place diced pears in ramekin.
- In a separate bowl or liquid measuring cup, whisk together almond milk, flax, maple syrup, vanilla, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, cloves and salt until well-combined. Stir in oats.
- Pour milk-oat mixture over pears and stir to combine. Bake for 40-43 minutes.
Notes
You could also quadruple this recipe (1 cup steel cut oats, 4 cups almond milk, 4 pears, etc.) and cook it in a crockpot on high for four hours or low for eight hours.
Can you use steel cut oats in baking recipes, like cookies??
Sometimes! But if it calls for old-fashioned oats, you’ll want to stick with those. They cook up much faster and don’t have that chewy texture!
I’m such a weirdo and actually love soft fruit! Well, some fruit like peaches, plums and pears. I put them into brown bags until they are almost bad and then they are my favorite.
Um, not sure what that says about my taste in men?
Chai + Pear + Oatmeal = I am so in.
“When a pear goes all mushy on me, I want nothing to do with it. Same goes for men. give me a perfectly firm, sweet pear and I am SO in.”
I just can’t.
Wow this baked oatmeal looks and sounds delicious.. I must try out the recipe, looks like the perfect start to the day!
I actually had brief stint with pears this summer after my mom kind of turned me on to them, and I have a feeling we’ll be seeing a lot more of each other since I need to replace apples with -something-. Still bitter about that one 😡
Hhaha I never realized pears and men had so much in common 😉 Pears are seriously underrated which is why I have a recipe with them coming up–I feel bad because they never get the love they deserve!
hahaha. I feel the same way about men too 😉
That is so true about pears! I love them when I eat them, but it seems to be very rare, in fact, I seriously can’t remember the last time I ate a pear. But I did have an apple and some orange juice just the other day! I made a peach baked oatmeal a while ago and ever since, I’ve been dreaming of all the other fruity flavors I could make. Chai spiced pear baked oatmeal sounds amazing and like the perfect breakfast for the cooler weather that I’m praying is coming my way soon 🙂
I’m not excited about the cooler weather, but this oatmeal makes it a wee bit easier to handle!!
I cannot wait to start making some steel cut oats in the slow cooker…I am going to wait though until the temperatures in Houston start going under 100 degrees though…HAHAHA!
100 degree?! Holy moly. I would be staying far, far away from oatmeal!
oh yum!! I think I will try this with quinoa!
Fab idea!
Pears are so underutilized… definitely a great change up from apples for the fall. Plus I’m pretty much head over heels for anyting chai <3
Me too! I can’t wait to start sipping on chai tea on the reg.
I adore pears but seriously hate how quickly they can turn to bruised mush. Such delicate little things. I love the looks of this recipe!! Once I switched to steel cut oats, I have a hard time liking the texture of old fashioned oats. I’m all about the steel cut oats these days so I’m adding this to my breakfast rotation. 🙂
Wahoo!! I agree–old-fashioned oats seem so mushy now that I’m used to steel-cut. Do you ever make “oatmeal” with buckwheat groats? It’s really good!
That looks SO GOOD. Pears are even better when they’re cooked, I think. Like have you ever had poached pears? Damn!
I haven’t but now you’ve got me drooling!!
Errr YUM! You had me at chai…this is like all my favourites in one! As much as I love apples, pears are right up there too! Have you tried making pear-sauce…heavenly stuff, especially as an oatmeal or yogurt topper! Bookmarking this!
Oh I know how much you love chai, girlfrand! I’ve never made pear sauce but that sounds beyond amazing.
i have fallen in love with steel cut oatmeal and i have a recipe coming up with pear tomorrow also 🙂 great minds think alike my friend.
Me too!! Seriously, there’s nothin’ better!