Irish Soda Bread Baked Oatmeal

I normally don't get into "holiday recipes." In fact, I can barely tolerate visiting my favorite sites (FoodGawker, TasteSpotting, and FindingVegan) during major holidays because I find them almost nauseating. I used to think Valentine's Day was the worst, but now I'm starting to think St. Patrick's Day might be. I mean, what's with everything being dyed fluorescent green?

But alas, here I am, joining the club:

When I think of my time in Ireland, I think of soda bread. (Okay, and muesli...) For those of you who have never had authentic soda bread (not sweet, not cake-like, not made with white flour), soda bread is a wonderful treat for any time of the day. It's best as a side with some SOUP (soup and soda bread made up about 50% of my diet during my time overseas), but it's also lovely at breakfast. With jam or butter, it was a hearty start to the day, worlds better than a slice of toasted WonderBread.

This baked oatmeal is much different from my usual recipes because it's significantly less sweeter. If you take a look at the recipe, you'll notice there's no sweetener involved. After all, it's meant to replicate the taste of bread, and a very simple bread! I could have eaten it plain because I'm such a sucker for soda bread, but you could also top it with your favorite jam, like this:

Traditional Irish soda bread also is "cut" across the top (to let out the bad spirits, duh!), but this is very difficult to achieve on raw oatmeal batter. I continued slashing/digging the "X" throughout the baking process to achieve the look in the pictures. Was it worth it? Yes.

Irish Soda Bread Baked Oatmeal

by The Oatmeal Artist

Prep Time: 10 min

Cook Time: 20 min

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Ingredients (serves 1)

• 1/3 cup milk of choice
• 1/2 tsp lemon juice
• 1/2 cup regular rolled oats
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• pinch of salt
• 1/8 cup raisins

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F and spray a single-serving ramekin with non-stick spray.
2. In a large bowl, add milk and lemon juice, stir, and let sit for about five minutes. (This is a replacement for the traditional buttermilk.)
3. Add in dry ingredients: oats, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir until combined.
4. Add raisins and other optional ingredients (caraway seeds, sunflower seeds, other dried fruits like cherries, currants, and cranberries) and stir.
5. Transfer to the ramekin and bake for 18-21 minutes.

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**You can also find hundreds of other oatmeal recipes (as well as tons of other meatless recipes) on my Pinterest account!  You can also like The Oatmeal Artist on Facebook. Thanks!