When we were pinching pennies for our $5/day food project, we got into the habit of making big batches of peanut butter & banana baked oatmeal. It keeps us from eating cereal for breakfast day after day. It’s quick & easy to throw together a big batch of baked oatmeal. You simply warm a piece up in the morning or even grab it on your way out the door to eat at your desk. Levi missed the bus the other day, and while Jess drove him to school he was able to eat a homemade, healthy breakfast in the car. It just works for us.
When fall rolled around, I decided we needed to add a new flavor to our repertoire and came up with pumpkin chocolate chip baked oatmeal. Since we are eating this stuff so often, I decided I needed another new recipe to work into the rotation. I must have holiday foods on the brain, because gingerbread seemed perfect.
crystallized ginger
As always, this is sweetened just enough to be flavorful. It’s breakfast, not dessert. I packed it with the flavors of ginger (ground, fresh, and crystallized!) and molasses. If you’re feeding little kids who find ginger spicy, omit the fresh and crystallized ginger. They could have a dollop of vanilla yogurt or whipped cream on top.
Gingerbread Baked Oatmeal
⅓ cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup full flavor/dark molasses
¼ cup butter, melted
2 eggs
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 cups oatmeal
½ cup flax meal
3 cups milk (soy, nut, or dairy)
⅓ cup chopped crystallized ginger (about 2 ounces)
Preheat oven to 375° F and butter a 9X13″ baking dish.
In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, molasses, melted butter, eggs, applesauce, grated ginger, spices, baking soda, and salt. Add oats, flax meal, and milk. Stir to combine. Pour into prepared baking dish and sprinkle the crystallized ginger over the top evenly.
Bake for 35-40 minutes, until set.
Makes 12 servings.
I used a molasses marked “full flavor”. This is a second molasses. It’s dark, but not as dark as blackstrap. Molasses grades are first molasses, second molasses, and blackstrap molasses. Molasses is the byproduct of making cane sugar. The sugar cane is boiled to extract the sugar crystals. The numbers in the molasses grades refer to how many times it was boiled. First molasses has the highest sugar content and the mildest flavor, while blackstrap has had the most sugar extracted, leaving behind the most concentrated flavor and minerals. Even this second molasses contributes some calcium, iron, and magnesium to your breakfast.
krista and jess 
I’m going to try this — I love all things ginger and molasses and I often eat oatmeal cooked in milk everyday.
Oh yay! I hope you like it.
I made it this morning. The only thing was, you mentioned the apple sauce in the ingredients list, but not when you put it in, so I left it out and added a few home-dried raisins instead. I love the ginger-molasses flavors. The thing is, I am not used to concentrated foods, so I wanted to eat three squares at once instead of one (I didn’t).
Thanks for catching that. It goes with the wet ingredients when you mix it all together. I’ll update the recipe now.
I’m glad you liked the flavors, though! I cannot get enough of this stuff. It’s really good with some plain organic yogurt spooned over it (which I have been doing every day)
I saw the applesauce on the side in the picture and thought it might just be meant to be served on the side — that’s why I left it out. Next time, I’ll put some in and it will probably be even more delicious. I also have some cashew butter I haven’t opened that might be good in this…. Even my Mom liked it.
This sounds so great! And, as always, the pictures are simply seductive. Thanks for sharing…
Thanks! It’s all about catching the rare (these days) bits of natural light.
Mmm, yum. Ginger! I need some new breakfast ideas so perfect!
Ginger is so good. I have leftover crystallized ginger and keep grabbing a slice here and there.
How serendipitous! I just finished placing a Penzey’s Spices order and in it was crystallized ginger. I found your blog towards the end of your $5/day food budget project, and need to carve out some time to read back a little ways. Your food always looks amazing (and yes, the photography is great also!)
lesroxxbangkok reblogged this on Adventures in food and commented: Another fantastic recipe – not my own, but I will certainly be trying it! Thanks ladies!
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Have just made this and am drooling over the smell. As always, I’ve improvised slightly. Didn’t have any applesauce, so I added an egg and put a few tablespoons of peanut butter in. Also, for some reason crystallized ginger is rather thin on the ground here so I’ve used glace ginger instead, folding some through and sprinkling some on top. Very excited about trying it!
Hmm, interested to see how it turns out with the peanut butter! I contemplated using cashew butter or something similar. I am not familiar with glace ginger, but google tells me maybe it is the same as crystallized/candied!
Glace ginger is candied. Yummy but not quite as good as crystallized as it lacks the sugar on the outside. Peanut butter is delicious! It gives it a slight crunch and saltiness. Have been eating this for brekky all week. Total convert here.
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