Baked apple oatmeal with date sugar

My first date sugar recipe!

For those of you who missed it, I had a little reflection on sweeteners and set myself a lent challenge, date sugar is probably one of the healthiest options out there and so I figured it made sense to make my own. So....lets go date crazy!

I decided to keep it pretty simple for my first attempt. A baked oatmeal recipe that I felt pretty sure would work in principle, since I’ve created so many baked oatmeal dishes before. The date sugar was sprinkled over the top to create a caramelised glaze, whilst extra dates were used throughout to provide additional sweetness. You could use other forms of granulated sugar such as coconut sugar or rapadura (sucanat) but I loved the rich caramelised flavour the dates gave plus its arguably the healthiest option.

In the same theme at the carrot cake baked oatmeal and banana bread oatmeal, I thought I’d incorporate some veggies....you can omit the courgette if you like, thought I dont think you can taste it at all? Just make sure you use a really flavoursome and tart apple so that the oatmeal is not at all bland.

Recipe: Baked apple oatmeal with date sugar 

Serves 2

Ingredients

1 apple cubed- use a tart flavoured apple such as a granny smith or a cooking apple

¼ cup courgette- grated (omit of preferred and use a larger apple)

1 tbs chia/flax seed

1 cup soy milk (or other vegan milk)

1 tsp cinnamon

½ cup oats

2 tbs chopped pecans or walnuts

1/4 cup chopped dates

2 tbs date sugar

Method

Reserve the chopped nuts and 1 tbs date sugar and mix all remaining ingredients together until well coated  and spoon into a greased oven dish approx 20x10cm. Press down and smooth the top before adding the nuts and pressing lightly into the mixture. Sprinkle with the reserved date sugar.

Bake at 180C for approx. 20 mins until the topping is golden. Serve immediately.  This also tastes good cold the next day!

 

For further guidance on making gluten free choices please see this post.

For tips and info on recipe measurement conversions, ingredients, substitutions and the methods behind how I do things.... check out my 'baking tips' tab at the top of the page.