Apple Pie Porridge

I dreamed a dream and made it real.

Last night I dreamt of many thing, but in one tiny part of my dream I was in the café in Groundhog Day and I was eating apple pie porridge.  I woke up with a need to make that real.  We also had a friend staying over on our sofa, so breakfast was a lovely event; my wife and our friend had avocado on toast, our housemate and I had porridge, we all had various different types of tea and we all curled up under duvets and blankets and carried on talking from the night before.  Sometimes terrible things happen, and sometimes it takes duvets and tea and huddling together to try to make sense of the world.  Sometimes you can’t make sense of the world, sometimes you can only complain about it and drink tea (and wine).

Sometimes you need a hot breakfast.

Apple Pie Porridge

(Served two with leftovers.  Serves four?)

Ingredients:

everything looks classy
when you have cinnamon sticks.

• 1 apple, grated
• 1 cup oats
• 2 cups almond milk (other milk would be fine, but almond milk adds to the nutty sweetness that makes this taste more like pie)
• 2 teaspoons brown sugar (not really needed.  But I liked it.)
• Half a cinnamon stick (ground cinnamon would be totally fine)
• Pinch of ground ginger (fresh would be better, didn't have any)
• Loads of nutmeg, maybe 20 grates?
• 2 cloves
• 1 star anise

(Or scrap all of that and use a couple of teaspoons of mixed spice)

• Maple syrup to serve

Method:

• Toast the oats in a saucepan until they just start to change colour.  This will add a nutty flavour to the porridge that is reminiscent of pastry.
• Add the milk and the apple, stir well.
• Add the sugar and the spices and cook for 5-10-15 minutes.  I cooked it for longer than I would have normally cooked porridge because I wanted the apple to melt down.
• Slop into a couple of bowls and pour some syrup over the top.
• Eat, pull the blanket up around your chin and feel comforted.