gluten-free eats

These baked oatmeal cups are lightly sweet and have a soft, chewy texture similar to cooled oatmeal. I started off by looking at Recipes Worth Repeating's Baked Oatmeal Cupcakes, cut it in half, threw in some inspiration from Amanda Drozdz, and then freestyled a bit.

Ingredients:

2 cups rolled oats (200 g)
1/2 cup oat flour (50 g)
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsps cinnamon
1 1/4 cups unsweetened applesauce (200 g)
1 cup water or milk product
1/4 cup honey or maple syrup
2 1/2 tablespoons oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg


Time: 10 minutes of prep and 30 to cook.

Instructions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350°F and put twelve paper muffin cups in your muffin tin.

2. Mix the dry ingredients together. In a separate vessel, mix the wet ingredients together. Add the wet to the dry and stir until there are no dry spots. Batter should be medium thickness.

3. Put about 1/4 cup of batter into each muffin cup. These don't rise much so you can fill them nearly to the top.

4. Cook for 30-35 minutes, turning the pan after 20 minutes. They're done when you push on their little heads and they feel bouncy like cold oatmeal. Also when a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.

5. Remove from the oven. Let them sit in the tin for a minute or two, then remove them to a cooling rack. The bottoms will feel damp and maybe a little undercooked. Just let them rest for 15-30 minutes, and they'll solidify. Just like oatmeal.

6. Eat warmish, cold, or give them a little toast in the oven or toaster oven if eating leftovers.

7. Store in an airtight container on the counter for a day or two, or freeze after cooling completely.

Makes 12 stubby muffins.

Notes: I use Bob's Extra Thick Rolled Oats, and the way I've written this recipe gives you a soft oatmeal-in-a-cup experience. If you like your oatmeal to be toothier, reduce the water to 1/2 cup and see where that gets you. Reducing the water will make the muffin drier and the rolled oats tougher.

If you want to use another flour in the place of oat flour, go for it. A nut flour/meal might be nice. Or if you want to go full rolled oat, drop the flour entirely and add in an extra 1/2 cup of rolled oats. I just like the softer texture of having some oat flour in there. Without a flour, these will be denser and chunkier.

I used avocado oil, but you can use any kind of fat you want—even a nut butter—just make sure it's soft enough to blend in.

Variations: Change the flavor by replacing the applesauce with the same amount of smashed up bananas or canned pumpkin. For extra interest, add in chocolate chips, nuts or seeds, dried fruit, or fresh fruit, like berries, diced apples, or grated carrots. Frozen fruit also works, but defrost it first. Dried fruit will suck up some of the liquid in the batter, and fresh or frozen fruit will add more liquid to it.

Egg-free: I haven't tried it, but the recipe I based this on didn't have an egg in it. So I'm fairly certain you can eliminate the egg without having to replace it with anything, but if you want to experiment with adding a chia or flax egg—or just some straight up chia seeds or flax meal—let us know how it goes.

Of course, with any of these changes, you may need to adjust the liquid, but you can't get into too much trouble here. These oatmeal cups should turn out no matter what you do. They might be softer or denser than you like, but they'll be edible. You can always fix it next time.

Questions? Ask 'em!