Weekend breakfast, however, is something completely different. Sometimes lasting into the PM. There’s nothing like a luxurious breakfast to start a luxurious day. Breakfast becomes about the group. We gather together at home or in babbling little groups outside the most popular breakfast joints. We come together to catch up and wind down, ready for the two days of the week that are all about socialising with those in our immediate community. During the working week we are forced out into the wider world to interact with people we do not know or understand. Humans can only hold stable relationships with a finite number of people who they know personally and whose emotions and actions they can anticipate and comprehend. This is thought to be around 150 people. Socialising with people outside of this intimate circle requires the following of social rules and imagined commonality – shared environment, shared grievances or shared beliefs. When the weekend arrives we can step outside of that imagined, yet concretely defined world, and spend our time with the people we know and who know us, not just the various bullet points of our identity.
Thus began my journey to find a quick yet elaborately indulgent breakfast that I could enjoy at my leisurely pace but would still be ready before he made it to the muesli jar. The checklist: a house filling fragrance, beauty when plonked on any table like surface, ability to increase heart warmth, simple ingredients, and that little je ne c’est quoi that makes you feel like you’re being rewarded for a week well survived
An important part of this recipe is the coconut milk. I don’t mean that coconut milk you can now buy in boxes to have on your cereal, I mean the thick creamy stuff that most of us buy in a can. Buying the pure canned coconut cream and milk, minus any emulsifies or stabilisers is of the utmost importance. You want the one the simplest ingredients list. Coconut fat is a saturated fat, meaning it behaves in a very similar way to animal fats. It sets at room temperature, it thickens when you whip it, and it adds moisture and density to baking. However, coconut is a medium chain saturated fat and is not processed by the body in the same way as animal fats. It goes straight to the liver to be used up as energy rather than stored unnecessarily in our nooks and crannies. It really is the best in both worlds.
Dry:
1 ½ cups whole rolled Oats
½ cup white Quinoa
2 tbsp Chia seeds
1 tsp Cinnamon
Zest of 1 small Orange or Mandarin
Pinch of Salt
Wet:
2 ripe Bananas
1 ½ cups Water
1 cup Coconut Milk (the pure kind with no emulsifiers)
¼ cup pure Maple Syrup
½ tsp Vanilla extract or the seeds from ½ Vanilla Pod
4 Pears
Frozen Raspberries, or fresh if they’re available (as many as you can squeeze in)
Cacao nibs to sprinkle
Chocolate Sauce
¼ cup Tahini
¼ cup Cacao
¼ cup Maple Syrup
¼ tsp Salt
½ cup Water
Combine all the remaining dry ingredients in a bowl.
Put all the wet ingredients in a blender and blitz until smooth.
Pour the wet into the dry, adding the drained quinoa, and stir to combine. It will be quite wet, it’s supposed to be. Let this mix sit in the bowl while you prepare the pears.
Peel, quarter and core the pears.
Line a medium sized baking tray with baking paper. I’ve used a 20x30cm tray, but you could use any shape you like.
Poor the oatmeal mixture into the tray, giving it a little stir to make sure all the oats and quinoa are evenly distributed.
Gently lay your pears on the top, side by side. Scatter over as many raspberries as you can possibly fit! There’s nothing like finding a sour little raspberry amoungst the sweet oatmeal. Sprinkle with cacao nibs for a little crunch.
Bake in a 160 degree oven for 20-30 minutes or until it is soft to touch yet not wet.
In this time, make the chocolate sauce. This is more than you will need for your baked oatmeal, but it can never hurt to have wholesome chocolate sauce lurking in the fridge.
Combine the tahini, cacao, maple syrup, and salt in a bowl and whisk to combine. Slowly add in the water, whisking as you go, until the sauce is smooth and pourable.
Transfer into a bottle or jug for the breakfast table.
Once the oatmeal is cooked, allow it to cool for 5 minutes in the tray, just so it’s easier to cut.
Cut into bars and serve with a generous pouring of chocolate sauce.