Oatmeal Walnut Cake with Date Caramel

So.  I wanted to make some good ole fashioned oatmeal cookies.  But... my cookie sheet had gone missing. No surprises, there.  I only had a round tin available... cue the CAKE!

Or, well, cookie-esque, dense cake.  With delicious topping.

Oatmeal Walnut Cake with Date Caramel

The Cake

• 2/3 cup unsalted butter (~150g) - thinking you could also do half butter, half greek yogurt.. will need to try.
• 2/3 cup light soft brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1.5 teaspoons cinnamon
• 3 cups jumbo/large oats (ie, not the porridge kind)
• handful of crushed walnuts

Date Caramel

• 3 handfuls of dates, stoned (I used Whitworths)
• 1/2 cup milk (you may need more/less.  Will describe later)
• 2 tablespoons of light soft brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

--

Preheat your oven to 190C/350F.  Melt your butter in the microwave, then add the flour, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon, baking soda and vanilla.  Stir in the eggs.  Add the oats and walnuts last, making sure to distribute them evenly into the mixture.

Grease your round cake tin before pouring in the mixture.  Place the cake in the oven for roughly 30 minutes.

Pre-icing...

As the cake cooks, make your date caramel!

I had never done this before, so it was mostly a shot in the dark... but it seemed to work well!  Heat a small saucepan on low-to-medium heat, adding 1/4 cup of the milk, the sugar, vanilla and all of the dates.  When it comes to the boil, lower the heat slightly and begin stirring every few seconds.  The dates will begin to soften, at which point you can begin 'smooshing' them with the back of your spoon, thus making the mixture much thicker and smoother.  The dates can't be entirely smooshed, so you will have a few date bits hanging around, but I personally think that's even better!  Continue adding the milk until you reach your desired consistency.  Remove from heat and let cool.

When the cake is semi-cooled, feel free to frost it with your caramel!

Oatmeal cake, pre-icing

As you can see, I also added a bit of desiccated coconut on top for flare...

This buddy should feed a small army.  Or, 8 ravenous individuals.

This cake was a true hit with my rowing comrades.  Three cheers for cake!

Honey Oat Bread

It's been awhile - here's a simple recipe to add to your bread repertoire!

I made a wee mistake with baking this baby and turned up the oven a bit too hot off the start, so it took longer to cook all the way through.  I'd suggest getting a good crust by baking at 200C/400F for 10 minutes, then letting it cook through at 180C/350F for another 30-45 minutes.  To see if it's done, turn it over and "knock" on the bottom.  If it sounds hollow, you're good to go!

Honey Oat Bread

• 1 1/4 cups water
• 2 tablespoons oil (vegetable is preferable, it has the mildest flavor)
• 3 cups bread/strong flour (you could easily use whole wheat or white)
• 1/2 cup jumbo oats (plus extra to sprinkle on top!)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 2 tablespoons oatbran (optional)

My outdated oven, yay!

To get that nice golden-brown crust, I'd suggest rubbing milk or a beaten egg over the top of your bread before you bake it.  That also gives you a nice surface to sprinkle oats for some added crunch!

Enjoy!

See my other post for tips on bread-making!

The Oatmeal Secret

After yesterday's stomach fail, I decided to switch up my usual 2/3 -- today, I went non-raw for breakfast, and plan to go raw for lunch and dinner!

KathEats (food blogger) has an ode to oatmeal on her page.. check it out

I did wake up rather late, so I didn't eat breakfast until about 10am, so the raw portions might turn into "early dinner" and "evening snack," but nonetheless!  I decided to go non-raw for breakfast because I had a huge craving for oatmeal.  I have an obsession with oatmeal.  I should probably write it a love song.  Maybe I'll commission my friend Lottie to get on that one, since I'm musically (and creatively)-challenged.  Not sure how many of you have made oatmeal the correct way (ie, on the stove top, not in the microwave, and with non-instant oats), but it's so worth it.  This English porridge crap?  No thanks.

Brie's Perfect Oatmeal

• 40g (or 1/2 cup) rolled, or jumbo, oats

• 1 or 2 egg whites (if you use the liquid carton kind, probably 1/4 cup)

• dash milk

• enough water to cover about an inch above the oats

• 1 tsp vanilla

• dash cinnamon

Bring to low boil.  Keep an eye on it, because oats burn to the bottom of the pan notoriously quick.  Stir vigorously for about 30 seconds once it comes to the boil, then let it rest for about 30 seconds... repeat until desired consistency.  The egg whites are incredible because they 1) add a lot of protein and 2) make your oats insanely fluffy.  Plus, the taste is great.  You'll notice that the above recipe doesn't have any sweetener in it.  That's the way I prefer it, because I tend to add a lot of toppings, most of which are sweet (brown sugar, banana, honey, etc).  If you want to add a sweet ingredient into the cooking process, go ahead; it won't disrupt anything.  A fun twist is cutting super thin slices of banana into the cooking oats before you "whip" or stir them, causing the bananas to emulsify and thicken your oatmeal, as well as add yummy sweetness. 

I hope you can tell that I'm an oatmeal connoisseur.