June 9-10, 2011: Porridge pie (breakfast serial part x)

I've got another winter breakfast for you! I found it recently on Miss Adriennely and she sourced it from a blog we both love, Chocolate & Zucchini. It's another interesting take on the standard ol' oat porridge. Here rolled oats get baked in liquid, with dried fruit and nuts, until they set into a moist and dense cake. It's like something half-way between a bowl of porridge and a muesli bar.

It's also very sweet. I wouldn't put any more than a tablespoon or two of sugar into this again, as I find that dried fruit is sweet enough already. I'd like to go back to the C&Z version sometime and bake some fresh fruit onto the top of this. Clotilde also suggests serving this with yoghurt and I did get the chance to team my porridge pie with some mixed berry Coyo. This coconut milk-based yoghurt set the Melbourne vegan scene abuzz for a month or two. Though it's delicious, I hesitate to call it yoghurt. It's sweet and buttery and lacks the distinctive tang of other yoghurts, better for topping cupcakes than breakfast. I also hesitate to call it vegan, as the follow-up news is that those un-tastable cultures seem to be grown on dairy milk. Too bad for Coyo - that's one helluva loyal demographic they're missing out on.

Small consolation is that this porridge pie is totally vegan friendly! I replaced the dairy milk with soy and omitted the eggs entirely without a hitch. This recipe is highly flexible for your choice of dried fruit, nuts, seeds and ground spices. Like the rice porridge, this is at its best when freshly cooked and would probably respond well to microwaving on subsequent mornings. Instead I gently reheated slices under a low-heat grill.

Porridge pie
(recipe adapted from a chain of Miss Adriennely, Chocolate & Zucchini and Quaker Oats)

1 cup rolled oats
1/3 cup sugar (I'd bust it down to 1 tablespoon)
1/2 cup dried cranberries (or other dried fruit)
2 tablespoons sesame seeds (try other nuts or seeds)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 shake cardamom
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups milk (I used soy)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat an oven to 180°C and lightly oil a baking dish.

In a large bowl, stir together the rolled oats, sugar, dried fruit, seeds and/or nuts, spices and salt. Stir through the vanilla and milk until well combined. 

Pour the mixture into the baking dish and bake for about 35 minutes, until the centre is set but the pie is still moist. Allow it to cool for at least 10 minutes before serving, with yoghurt and/or fresh fruit on the side.