Baked oats

"Everything looks like cake, but is not in fact cake." Emily Gerard/Today

This is one of those posts that began with me thinking I was writing about one thing, and then finding that actually I was writing about something else.

It began with the above Baked oats three ways in the current Coles Magazine. It piqued my interest, even though it was a breakfast thing, and breakfast is not really my thing, because I was dimly aware of various people talking about baked oats here and there. It seemed to be a thing, and if Coles is doing it, then it probably is. They mostly don't create trends after all - they respond and follow them. The three variations above - the only variation is the topping - are made from a Coles product - sachets of quick oats flavoured with honey, and you have to soak these overnight in milk, baking powder, natilla extract and cinnamon. Next day you bake them for half an hour. So I thought that this was more or less it - with probably variations on the oats mix.

And yes, this kind of preparation is indeed one way of doing it, but no, this is not really what the trend I had been dimly aware of, is. And guess what? This is a TikTok thing. Of course it is. Most major trends begin there it seems to me. i am a food blog - had the clearest explanation of the differences, proffering this chocolate version as its example. The writer sums up the difference thus:

"Unlike your regular baked oats (which is essentially oatmeal but baked) the oats for TikTok baked oats are blended into oat flour and then baked up into a little cake." i am a food blog

Or - as described in a little more detail by Food 52 writer Valerio Farris:

"The crux of the baked oats phenomenon is simple, and much like baked oatmeal: oat flour (or rolled oats ground in a blender), adhered together with a fat and some type of binding agent, flavored with a mixture of your choice, tossed into a ramekin or other small oven-safe container, baked for a short amount of time, and garnished with a topping. ...

• Oat flour (or ground oats)

• An egg, milk of your choice, or a smashed banana

• Anywhere from 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of baking soda

• Maple syrup or another sweetener

• Mix-ins of your choice, like vanilla extract, fruit, nuts, or chocolate"

  Valerio Farris/Food 52

Wouldn't that be a cake? A cake in which the only difference is that the flour is ground up oats. This dish of Baked oats with raspberries and white chocolate comes from tazxbakes/TikTok and is one that is often referenced. But I really don't know whether it is the first one. The one at the top of the page is Vanilla and chocolate baked oats from Yamna Jawad/Feel Good Foodie

I gathered that the massive popularity of these baked oats recipes is (a) because they are incredibly quick and easy to make, as long as you have some kind of food processor, (b) - they have a healthy vibe because of the oats and (c) they are infinitely variable - hence the number of TikTok and Instagram recipes. Everyone it seems in the social media world wants to share the love, or outdo everyone else, depending on how you look at it.

And as I looked at ever more gooey, chocolatey, fudgy creations I began asking myself whether these are indeed healthy. I know oats are really good, particularly if you have high cholesterol like me, but surely all that other sweet stuff can't be good. And indeed I did find a nutritionist who pointed out that:

"chocolate oats, which are particularly popular and are made with cocoa powder and sometimes chunks of chocolate, are about 396 calories, while the blueberry muffin oats are likely to be around 611 calories." Kelly Mulhall

If my memory is correct a woman's daily intake of calories should be around 2000 calories, which make the blueberry version being almost half the daily intake. This nutritionist recommended cutting back on the sweet stuff that was often in the recipe - maple syrup, sugar, chocolate - even stevia. She - or maybe another nutritionist - also recommended adding some protein powder. Surely not?

The oats in these baked oats recipes are blended to a fine powder, like flour, which, to my mind, really turns them into cakes. There are some, however, like The Serious Eats writer Yvonne Ruperti in her Strawberry almond baked oatmeal who keep their oats whole. The rest of the recipe is fundamentally the same, however, in spite of this recipe being referred to as baked oatmeal. Which I find a bit odd, because to me oatmeal is the flour, and oats the grain. Am I wrong in this definition, because there certainly seems to be some consistency in the way the two types are referred to - oats for the floury version and oatmeal for the whole ones.

When I asked Google when Baked oats became a thing, the AI reply - which now always comes first - gently reminded me that baked oats had been around for a long time - at least since 1917 when this United States Department of Agriculture pamphlet gave a recipe for baked oatmeal and nuts. Oatmeal again - but then maybe oatmeal, to them, did indeed mean a flour.

The AI went on to remind me that the current thing was merely a trend.

As I read on I found that Heidi Swanson of 101 Cookbooks fame was often credited with beginning the current trend back in 2011 in one of her cookbooks, with this Blueberry baked oatmeal which Nicholas Day reproduced on the Food 52 website. And again, even though the word oatmeal is used, what we have here is what I would call oats.

Deb Perelman of Smitten Kitchen, also recognises Heidi Swanson as the inspiration for her Baked oatmeal with caramelised pears and vanilla cream - a rather more complicated version - not a quick breakfast treat, because you first have to caramelise your pears. Even Ottolenghi - well Helen Goh - in his latest book Comfort - has a go with Cinnamon baked oatmeal with bananas and strawberries - which alas is not online. Mostly, however, the big names tend to just vary porridge which is not cakelike at all.

I was also marginally surprised at the paucity of recipes for savoury versions. After all if this is a breakfast thing, you would have thought there would be lots of attempts to create something with fried eggs, or bacon, or sausages. Even beans. But all I could find was this Savoury baked oats with bacons, mushrooms and caramelised onions on the Savoury Simple website and it also seems to keep the oats whole, although they are boiled, like porridge. So in spite of the name of the website, this is not a quick and simple recipe.

And whatever else you might say about all those TikTok recipes they are exceptionally quick and easy. Bung it all in a food processor, blend, pour it into a dish and bake, then top with other stuff.

I could certainly look at the baked whole oats versions as a homely dessert some time - a bit like a crumble really, but don't really think I'll try the little cakes. But maybe I'm just being a snob and they might be the answer to my prayers. Or David's. He has a much sweeter tooth than I.

YEARS GONE BY

March 17

2024 - Boring? But I'll persevere

2023 - Noodle politics

2022 - Chicken, mushrooms, wine?

2021 - Food snobs

2020 - Deleted

2019 - Looking for a luxury escape in the sun

2018 - Torched - a new foodie word

2017 - How can airline breakfasts compete?