Fall Oatmeal with Apple & Blackberry
A calm bowl for early autumn mornings. Warm buttered apples, creamy oats, and glossy blackberries.
When the air turns crisp and apples start piling up at the market, I crave bowls like this. Creamy oats cooked slowly with milk, topped with warm buttered apples and a streak of blackberry compote. It’s soft, tart, and golden. The kind of breakfast that feels like autumn itself.
Oatmeal is a blank canvas. You can make it rich with full milk, lighter with half milk and half water, or dairy-free with almond milk. It takes on whatever tone you give it. Here, the apples bring warmth, the berries keep it alive.
Fall Oatmeal with Apple & Blackberry
Serves 2
INGREDIENTS
120 g rolled oats
480 ml whole milk — or almond milk
¼ tsp fine sea salt
1 strip lemon peel (about 7 cm, no white pith)
1 tbsp date syrup or honey
Apples
2 small crisp apples, cut into 1 cm cubes
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tbsp light brown sugar
½ tsp ground cinnamon
Pinch fine sea salt
Blackberry Compote
150 g blackberries
1 tsp date syrup or brown sugar
1 tsp olive oil
To Finish
Greek yogurt
Fresh thyme or mint leaves
Drizzle of extra virgin olive oil
METHOD
Melt the butter in a medium sauté pan over medium heat. Add the apple cubes, date syrup, cinnamon, and a pinch of salt. Cover and cook 4–5 minutes, tossing occasionally, until the apples soften slightly and take on a light caramel glaze. Scoop out the apples and set aside.
Add the oats, milk, salt, lemon peel, and date syrup directly to the same pan. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook 10–12 minutes, stirring often, until creamy but still textured. Remove the lemon peel.
Fold in half the apples. Use the other half as topping.
In a small pan, combine blackberries and date syrup. Simmer gently over low heat for 3–4 minutes, just until some berries burst and the juices thicken slightly. Stir in olive oil for gloss. Keep warm.
Spoon the warm oatmeal into shallow bowls. Place a quenelle of strained yogurt on top. Scatter the reserved golden apple cubes. Add a ribbon of blackberry compote, letting the syrup bleed naturally through the yogurt and oats.
Finish with a drizzle of olive oil and a few thyme or mint leaves.
