Tag Archives: oats

A New Year’s Resolution, and slow cooked porridge

Honestly, I never actually abandon this blog despite the loooong gaps between posts. But the main purpose is for me to have my own ‘recipe book’ online for easy access, and if I don’t cook new things – well, there’s nothing to blog about!

Oh, hang on. Cooking new things sounds an awful lot like a goal for the year…

So, yup, here we are: 2024, and an intention to cook at least one new thing each month. And blog about it. 12 posts will be a whole lot more than I’ve managed of late 😉 (where does the time go, honestly?!).

If you’re not familiar with AppleJellyJam (ie this blog!), I do things my own way: there is a page for each recipe, with *just* the recipe – that’s what the links at the top of the page (and all due apologies, I totally know that words better on a full browser, not so much on mobile. One of these years…). Blog posts are chattier about the process, but it is always backed up with that just-the-info page. So you never have to read my sixteen pages of back story, like Ever Other Food Blog Ever! 😉

Well, not this time: I tried a recipe, I didn’t much care for it, it gets waffle but no linked page! Or rather, you can have the link I used: Slow-cooked porridge from BBC GoodFood.

I actually went looking for this after a friend recommended overnight porridge in the slow cooker. It’s not that porridge takes that long from scratch, but the big draw for me was the idea of stewing apple right along with the oats. You also make 3-4 portions at a time, and just reheat it from the microwave on other mornings. Sounds good? Hmm.

I did have my doubts looking at the recipe – it seems like a *lot* of liquid. It was a lot of liquid. I went with:

  • 1 cup oats (in fairness, mine weren’t jumbo, and that would have helped)
  • 2 cups milk (skimmed. Also I didn’t have that much milk to do it all)
  • 2 cups water (seriously? How much liquid?? But I don’t argue first go)
  • 2 small apples, peeled, cored, and finely chopped
  • a sprinkling of cinnamon

And that’s it! Bung it all in, cook on low for 8ish hours aka overnight.

And voila… urm, oaty … pudding?

slow cooked porridge

Admittedly, a bowl of porridge isn’t going to look that spectacular regardless, but the oats – remember I said I maybe should have bought jumbo oats? – had disappeared into nothingness. It tasted of oaty apple and cinnamon and not too bad at all (needed more sweetness), but the texture was just weird. I ate it, over three mornings, but I wasn’t looking forward to it. And the kicker? It took almost as long to reheat in the microwave as it does to just make porridge! Hah!

So as you can imagine, I’m not planning on trying this again. Yes, jumbo oats might help. Less liquid might help. Some honey/syrup/sugar might help. But honestly, just not worth the effort for the result. I am enjoying feeling healthy from the switch to porridge for most breakfasts, but I’ll stick to making it a little more traditionally. Or, y’know, out of a sachet in the microwave ‘cos mornings, bleh 😉

One bonus tip: you can buy liners for slow cookers. I dread to think what kind of a baked on mess this would have made, and decided not to find out. Liner worked well! Wouldn’t use them for everything, but a good mess saving possibility.

Banana oat bars

As requested (hi, Karen! 🙂 ), here’s a super-easy recipe that you can modify to suit your own tastes.

I love this as a way to use up over-ripe bananas – the riper the banana, the sweeter the recipe. It also feels super-healthy, as far as snacks go, and can be made with as little as two ingredients: oats and banana. Easy to remember, too: 1 cup oats for every banana! The size of the banana is important, of course: if it’s large then add a little bit more of the oats, until the mixture is quite stiff (why does this post feel like a Carry On script!?!).

That seems a little dull, though, so I tend to add chopped dried apricots – tip: ‘chop’ the apricots with scissors, much easier than a knife – sultanas (slightly juicier than raisins) or dried cherries (goes really well if you add a smallish amount of ground almonds).

My last batch also saw me experiment with adding golden syrup. The extra sweetness isn’t really needed, but it’s a nice addition if you’re willing to forego a little of the healthy feel.

In the pic above, I should point out that the baking tray used is super-tiny: about 6×4 inches, I think. Line it well with greaseproof paper, as the mix does stick quite a lot!

Alternatively, when I’ve done a double batch (2 bananas), I get enough mix to use a bigger tray and a silicone sheet – this is perfect, as the whole result just peels off! For that, I use a normal-sized baking sheet and don’t try to push the mix into the edges (see pic below). If doing this, it’s important to keep the mixture as non-runny as possible, and don’t press the edges down too thin, or they’ll burn before the middle is cooked.

I would recommend keeping the mix reasonably thin – about half an inch? – to stop the middle feeling a little gloopy. That’s matter of taste, though, as I got complaints with that batch about the edges being a little chewy! You can’t win, but at least this recipe is easy enough for repeat trials!

Enjoy 🙂