Baked Porridge for one; with a crisp top and soft centre, this is a warming, healthy and delicious baked breakfast, made three ways!

I’m a firm believer in eating dessert for breakfast.

So on my ongoing quest to satisfy my insatiable sweet-tooth that often peaks before noon, I decided to devise a recipe that could replace a sweet, dense cake but still be wholly justifiable as a nutritious breakfast food that would fill me up before heading to work.

Sure, I could just have baked a Victoria Sandwich and just gorged myself on sponge and cream before starting the day but I didn’t really fancy the sugar crash…or the washing up.

The answer to my problem? Baked Porridge.

I know you’re probably thinking – “Baked porridge? Why on God’s green Earth would you bake porridge??” Being the product of Scottish parents whose childhood porridge consisted of oats, water and salt, this recipe was found to be particularly baffling in my household.

Baked Porridge is not the gloopy, beige slop you might be used to seeing, stirred on the stove and poured into a bowl for some old person with four teeth, or a fictional orphan to consume unwillingly. When baked, this porridge becomes firm and has a texture somewhere in-between a dense cake and a chewy oat cookie. It is divine, filling and best of all, it can be flavoured, sweetened and jazzed up however you like!

I’ve included three different recipes for baked porridge in this post, all of which are delicious, filling and surprisingly healthy! Not bad for something that tastes like cake, eh?

Preheat your oven and simply mix together all the ingredients in a bowl except for the sliced banana.

Pour the mixture into either a small pie dish like I did, or use a ramekin or another small oven-safe dish and bake for until the porridge is firm and golden brown.

Cool for 5 minutes, add your sliced banana topping and tuck in!

This is my favourite of the three recipes, and can be even further improved by swapping the peanut butter for another nut butter or even Nutella!

If you wanted to, you could grease the dish you bake it in and then remove the porridge from it once cooled a little, that way it really would be like eating cake for breakfast!

Repeat the above steps (without the sliced banana obviously) for this gingerbread version and top with nuts or seeds once cooled.

This is a real warming breakfast, perfect in Winter! It’s just as dark, sweet and sticky as your favourite gingerbread. Look how cakey it is!

Repeat the above steps for this banana and berry version and top with the sliced banana and some more berries once cooled.

For this recipe I chose to use raspberries because I love the tangy sweetness they give to the stodgy porridge. This would be made even more delicious if you added some chocolate chips!

These baked porridge recipes can easily be made gluten-free with the use of gluten-free oats!

They can also easily be made vegan with the use of plant-based milk!