Raspberry Chocolate Chip Baked Oatmeal

This is my latest baked oatmeal creation. It started when I tried a recipe for oatmeal with cocoa powder and raspberries. The girls and I liked the raspberry flavor but didn't like the taste of the cocoa powder mixed into the oatmeal. We wanted more of a rich chocolate taste to complement the tartness of the raspberries. So I opted for chocolate chips, which make almost any breakfast better. I started off with 1/2 cup of raspberries, but the girls and I decided that we like it better with one whole cup. Now every bite is a combination of melted chocolate and tart raspberry goodness. Breakfast is definitely my favorite meal of the day, even when it's still dark out when we're eating it.

Raspberry Chocolate Chip Baked Oatmeal
serves 4

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups Bob's Red Mill gluten-free oats
• 1 1/3 cups almond milk
• 2 Tbsp. brown sugar
• 2 Tbsp. unsweetened applesauce
• 2 Tbsp. canola oil
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract. Use Trader Joe's alcohol-free vanilla extract or another vanilla extract that does not have corn syrup and is preferably alcohol-free, since the alcohol could be derived from corn. Recently I have been using Rodelle Vanilla Flavor alcohol free all natural extract, which I found at Stop and Shop.
• 1/8 tsp. sea salt
• 1/3 cup dairy-free semi-sweet chocolate chips. The two kinds I use that do not contain milk fat are Trader Joe's semi-sweet chocolate chips and Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate chips.
• 1 cup frozen raspberries

Instructions:

The night before, measure the oats into a small bowl. Warm the almond milk in the microwave and pour over the oats. Stir and cover the bowl with a plate.

In the morning preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Add the brown sugar, applesauce, canola oil, baking soda, cream of tartar, vanilla, and salt to the bowl and stir until combined. Then stir in the chocolate chips and frozen raspberries. Pour the mixture into four 7-ounce ramekins. (It's a little more than 1/2 cup per ramekin.) Place the ramekins in the oven and bake for 25 minutes. Remove the ramekins from the oven and let the oatmeal cool for a couple of minutes before serving.

You could also try baking the oat mixture in an 8"x8" Pyrex pan if you don't want to use ramekins. You may need to decrease the oven temperature and increase the baking time, but I'm not sure since I haven't tried baking the oatmeal this way.