Granola Porridge with Fresh Blueberries & Warm Maple Cream

Blueberries are my favorite morning berry. They don’t need to be peeled, capped, or cored, so gobbling up a handful or adding them to a favorite recipe is quick and easy, even before coffee. 

Beyond the sweetness, color, and nutrition of the blueberries, the secret to this porridge is whole-grain oats, such as Irish or pin oats, which have coarser, chewier texture and nuttier flavor than rolled or quick oats. A big scoop of nutty granola adds welcome crunch. The decadent warm maple cream is the perfect topper. Some of us can’t get enough of the cream and really pour it on. If that sounds like you, it’s easy to double that part of the recipe. 

Makes 4 to 6 servings

Ingredients

For the maple cream:

• 1 cup heavy or whipping cream
• 1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
• 1 cinnamon stick
• Zest of 1 orange cut into wide strips
• 1/2 cup maple syrup

For the porridge:

• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 3/4 cup steel-cut oats (also known as Irish oats or pinhead oats)
• 1 tablespoon butter (optional)
• 1 cup chunky granola with nuts
• 2 cups fresh blueberries
• Coarse salt, for sprinkling (optional)

Directions

For the maple cream:

Bring the cream, vanilla bean, cinnamon stick, and zest to a gentle simmer in a small saucepan over medium-low heat. Simmer gently for 10 minutes to infuse the flavors; do not let the cream boil. Remove the solids. Stir in the maple syrup. 

Simmer until thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, about 20 minutes, and then keep warm over very low heat. Prepare the porridge while the cream simmers.

For the porridge:

Bring the milk, water, and salt to a boil in a medium-high saucepan. Stir in the oats, reduce the heat to low, and cook until thick and tender, about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally at first, and more often as they thicken. Add a splash of hot water if the oats get dry before they turn tender. 

Remove from oatmeal from the heat, let stand for 2 minutes, and then stir in the butter, if using. Stir in the granola. Gently stir in the blueberries. 

Serve warm with a generous drizzle of Maple Cream and a sprinkling of coarse salt, if you like.

Sheri Castle, award-winning food writer and cooking teacher, is known for melding culinary expertise, storytelling and humor, so she can tell a tale while making a memorable meal. Her creative, well-crafted recipes and practical advice inspire people to cook with confidence and enthusiasm. She's written a tall stack of cookbooks and her work appears in dozens of magazines. In 2019, the Southern Foodways Alliance named Sheri among Twenty Living Legends of Southern Food, calling her The Storyteller.

Sheri says that she's fueled by great ingredients and the endless pursuit of intriguing stories, usually about the role that food plays in our lives, families, communities and culture.

When she steps away from the kitchen or a local farm, Sheri enjoys spending quiet time at her home near Chapel Hill. She hails from the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.