Baked Oats with Apple and Cinnamon

This tastes like apple crumble but is built like a proper breakfast. Grating half the apple into the batter keeps it moist without extra sugar, and the egg sets it into soft, sliceable squares. Make it the night before and reheat it in the morning.

Breakfast

Serves 2

Baked oats with sliced apple and walnuts in a ceramic baking dish, dusted with cinnamon and served with Greek yogurt

Ingredients

100g rolled oats
1 large apple (about 180g): half grated, half thinly sliced
1 egg
200ml semi-skimmed milk (or an unsweetened plant milk)
20g walnuts, roughly chopped
2 tsp maple syrup (10g)
1 tsp ground cinnamon, plus a pinch for the top
1 tsp baking powder and a pinch of salt
Half a tsp vanilla extract
To serve: 100g 0% fat Greek yogurt

Method

Heat the oven to 180C (160C fan). Lightly oil a small baking dish, about 15 x 20cm, or two individual ovenproof dishes.
Mix the oats, cinnamon, baking powder and salt in a bowl.
In a jug, whisk the egg, milk, maple syrup and vanilla. Pour this over the oats and stir in the grated apple and half the walnuts.
Leave it to stand for 5 minutes. The oats start to soak up the milk, which gives a softer, more even bake.
Pour into the dish, lay the apple slices on top in an overlapping row, and scatter over the rest of the walnuts and a pinch of cinnamon.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the middle is just set and springs back when you press it lightly, and the edges are golden.
Rest for 5 minutes, then cut into portions and serve warm with Greek yogurt. It keeps for three days in the fridge; reheat for a minute in the microwave.

Why it works

A serving with the yogurt has about 20g of protein and 7g of fibre, which is what makes it a breakfast rather than a pudding. The protein comes from the egg, milk and yogurt; the fibre from the oats, apple and walnuts.

Oats are one of the few foods with an approved health claim in the UK. Their soluble fibre, beta-glucan, lowers LDL cholesterol when you eat about 3g a day. This dish gives you part of that, and it slows how quickly the carbohydrate reaches your blood, which is why it is tagged for blood sugar.

The sweetness is mostly fruit. Grated apple and cinnamon do the work that sugar does in most baked oat recipes, so there are only two teaspoons of maple syrup in the whole dish, about 3g of added sugar per serving. Many baked oat recipes online use five or six times that.

For women around menopause, a breakfast that combines protein and fibre keeps energy steadier through the morning: see the best diet for menopause. For a no-bake version you can make in two minutes, try the overnight oats with flaxseed.

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