Baked Breakfast: Quinoa Oatmeal

My new favorite breakfast. And, it’s packed with lots of great stuff.

Three kinds of fruit—blueberries, peaches and pears—quinoa, oats, coconut yogurt or applesauce, almond flour and almond milk. Mix them all together and you’ve got a great hot breakfast boasting a complete protein and lots of fiber, magnesium, and iron.

Plus it’s a cinch to pull together on a busy morning and makes enough for a few day’s worth of warm yummy breakfasts for a couple or a complete breakfast for a growing family.

Imagine this yumminess warm from the oven and topped with a great big dollop of coconut yogurt. Yep, that’s exactly how I like it.

Baked Quinoa Oatmeal

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Mix in a large bowl:

1 cup quinoa flakes
1 cup almond flour
½ cup gluten-free rolled oats*
½ cup flaked coconut (unsweetened)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground ginger
pinch of allspice
½ teaspoon salt

Mix in a separate bowl or measuring cup:

¾ cup almond milk
¼ cup coconut yogurt or applesauce
¼ cup maple syrup

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Stir to combine. Set aside.

In a deep dish pie plate or 8” square glass baking dish sprinkle:

1 cup blueberries
1 pear, diced into about 1/2 inch cubes
1 peach, diced into about 1/2 inch cubes

Spoon the quinoa mixture over the fruit.  Sprinkle top with about a tablespoon or two of each: quinoa flakes, oatmeal and flaked coconut.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. The top should be golden brown and fruit bubbly. Serve warm topped with coconut yogurt.

Makes about 6-8 servings.

*If you prefer not to use gluten-free oats you can substitute with an equal amount of quinoa flakes.

PRINT RECIPE

Mallomars or Whippets {Gluten-free}: with a White Wine Kicker

Each year, when the weather turns cool, it’s time to keep a lookout for the bright yellow boxes of Mallomars adorning the end of the aisle at your local grocery store. Boxes and boxes of delightful chocolate covered marshmallowy goodness.

And then they’re gone.

That’s because Mallomars are, according to the NY Times, “The Cookie That Comes Out in the Cold”—a seasonal treat popular mostly in the northeastern part of the US. Well, even more specifically the NY metropolitan area.

For three years now I’ve looked longingly at those yellow boxes. And today, folks, I satisfied my desire. Made my own Mallomars. Or, Whippets (Canada) or Schokokuss (Germany). So there.

There’s one thing—besides being gluten-free—that makes these different from their commercial inspiration—the marshmallow has been jazzed up a bit. (Probably should play this up more because it’s kind of unique.) It’s made with a boiled white wine syrup. While it doesn’t lend a bold flavor to the cookie you will pick up a hint of white grape. Subtle but there—and it makes them a bit more special.

As if they needed anything more to make them special.

Mallomars

Graham Cracker Base

Make one batch of gluten-free Grahams—found here. You will want to keep these cookies plain (not fancy—coated with chocolate).

I rolled the cookies out to about 3/16 inches and cut them with a 1 3/4 inch biscuit cutter that had a nice scalloped edge to it. Just a note: the dough is on the soft side so split into thirds and refrigerate it (at least 60 minutes or even overnight). Take out a third at a time to roll out between two pieces of parchment—leave the remaining dough in the fridge. Be sure to flour the bottom layer of parchment before you roll the dough out. Cut your cookies and remove them to a parchment lined cookie sheet with a flour coated metal spatula. Watch your baking time—these might take a little less time since they’re smaller than the original recipe. I would check at 10 minutes. Also, cookies continue to bake when they come out of the oven. You want these just lightly browned. Cool the cookies completely. You do not want them even slightly warm when you pipe the marshmallow onto them.

White Wine Marshmallow

First of all, if you’re not into the whole white wine marshmallow thing no problem. Here’s a very nice recipe for marshmallow made from either maple syrup or agave that will probably work just fine. Also, I bet you could make this with red wine (an inexpensive sweet wine, like Riunite Lambrusco). I will be trying that for sure!

Make a syrup from the wine. Mix together in a medium saucepan:

750 ML bottle of Riunite Bianco*
1/4 cup sugar

The wine will foam when you add the sugar. Be sure you have a big enough saucepan—the wine should only fill it to the halfway point.

Bring the wine to a boil and immediately lower to a simmer. Continue to simmer until reduced to 1/3 original volume. Remove from the heat and cool until just warm.

Mix together in a glass measuring cup or ceramic bowl:

¾ cup wine syrup
¼ cup agave

Sprinkle with

3 one ounce packages unflavored gelatine

Microwave 30 seconds.

Pour the wine mixture into stand mixer with whisk attachment.

Start on low speed to mix and add:

¼ teaspoon salt

Increase the speed to high (you can tent the mixer to avoid spray).

Mix 10-12 minutes until at least double in volume and holding a peak.

Fill a cake decorating bag equipped with a large tip (I actually just used the coupler) with the marshmallow. (If you don’t have a decorating bag you can use a ziploc bag.) Pipe the marshmallow onto each cookie.

*Go with an inexpensive sweet wine like Riunite—my guess is a dry wine isn’t going to be as successful. But, you might try it and prove me wrong.

Chocolate Coating

Melt (using one of these methods):

One 10 ounce bag Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips

Mix in:

3 tablespoons of melted shortening (measure before you melt)

Assemble

Gently pick up each marshallowy cookie and dip—marshmallow down—into the chocolate up to the cookie. Use a fork to help pull the cookie out of the marshmallow and place on a parchment lined cookie sheet.

Allow to cool. I actually placed the cookies in the freezer for about 15 minutes to set the chocolate better. The chocolate never got quite as hard as a commercial Mallomar.

Makes about two dozen cookies.

PRINT MALLOMAR RECIPE

PRINT GRAHAM COOKIE RECIPE