Baked Oatmeal

Our favorite 'working' coffee shop serves a baked oatmeal/cake thing for breakfast that I love. It's not what I normally think of as 'baked oatmeal' (which would just be oatmeal that's cooked via baking) - it's way better. And I say this as someone who loves oatmeal. They serve it with fresh fruit on top and a dollop of Greek yogurt.

My dad and step-mother are in town right now, so I auditioned a version of this dish for them (we'll probably end up serving it at a big potluck brunch in a few weeks). I started with this recipe, but made some modifications. Chances are good I'll make it with a layer of bananas on the bottom next time (inspired by the coffee shop version).

Baked Oatmeal

• 4 C rolled oats
• .5 C oat bran
• 1 C brown sugar
• 1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
• 1 Tbsp baking powder
• 1.5 tsp salt (I used homemade lemon salt)
• 1.5 C milk (I used skim) - if you don't warm it, your butter will congeal. your call.
• .75 C / 6 oz melted butter
• 3 beaten eggs
• 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 C dried currants

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 x 13 baking dish.

Mix oats, oat bran, brown sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl. In a larger bowl, mix together the milk, butter, eggs, and vanilla extract. Mix in the currants. Pour into the prepared baking dish.

Bake until slightly brown around the edges and pretty dry, about 40 minutes.

serves 8