Buttery-Toasted Oatmeal with Sticky Apple Topping (p. 647)

I've always loved steel-cut oatmeal. It's so much creamier than the instant kind. The trade-off is time, but if you want your breakfast to be a little more lavish, try steel-cut rather than rolled. You will be surprised.

Meez:

Steel cut oatmeal, apples, brown sugar, butter, salt, half-and-half

Procedure:

Heat 2 1/2TB butter in a heavy saucepan until it stops bubbling. Add your cup of steel cut oats and stir until it browns a little more (difficult to tell) and gives off a nutty aroma (not so difficult). Add 4 1/2 cups boiling water (electric kettle or hotpot is great for this) and 1/4 tsp salt to the oats and stir occasionally for about 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a skillet melt half a stick of butter and add 2 apples (they call for Gala or Fuji but I used some of my remaining Golden Delicious) that have been peeled, cored, and sliced 1/8 inch thick.

Oatmeal and apples on the heat

Stir occasionally until they brown a little. Then add 1/2 cup brown sugar and 1/8 tsp salt. Stir gently (because the apples will be tender at this point) until the sugar has melted. Stir in half-and-half and let it thicken up. I used whole milk instead, initially it looked like it curdled (possibly from the malic acid in the apples) but it thickened out after a bit and looked good.
Put your oatmeal in a bowl and put the apple topping over it.

Final dish

So, how was it?
It was really good. I'd probably do it again another weekend for breakfast. It's thick, hearty, and sweet.

What did you learn?
I learned to keep half-and-half (or at least heavy cream) on hand more often.

Recommend it?

Absolutely, it's great for a delicious breakfast that'll power you through the day.