I’m not a big breakfast person; I’ve really had to push myself to eat breakfast every day for the last few months (because, as we’ve all been taught, it really is important). I just don’t find myself waking up in the morning and craving anything that’s a typical breakfast food. That’s not to say I don’t like breakfast foods; I love having an omelette or pancakes or French toast—for dinner. That’s fun. And one of the benefits of living in NJ where diners are plentiful and breakfast can be ordered any time of the day (seriously - most diners around here are of the 24-hour variety).

A month or so ago, one of the breakfast food offerings in our company cafeteria was oatmeal pancakes. They actually looked really nice—dense and moist—so I got them. Yummy. Very much so. I was on a mission to find a recipe so I could make them at home myself. I found a few on the various recipe sites and tried them out one weekend.

It was a Goldilocks scenario: one batch was WAY too sweet and they ended up burning before they were cooked through because of the über-high sugar content (I was using low heat) while another required soaking of the oats and other nonsense beforehand which turned it into a 3 hour process to make some friggin’ pancakes. So I adapted the following from the recipes I found to create a pleasing final product that’s not too terribly sweet. And unlike your garden-variety buttermilk pancakes, these reheat quite well because they’re all kinds of moist and lovely.

You will need:

1 1/3 cups water
1/2 cup old-fashioned oats (the kind that come in the cylindrical container with the pilgrim on them or your personal fave) 5 tablespoons butter
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
2/3 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
1/3 cup toasted wheat germ or ground flaxseed (extra fiber-tastic)
2 eggs
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 1/2 cups diced apples or pears (blueberries ended up a little too wet for my liking, but they could work, too)

Note: I suppose you could use raisins instead of fresh fruit, too, and do a sort of oatmeal raisin pancake instead of an oatmeal raisin cookie. But I would cut back on the sugar if so since raisins pack a lot of sugar and that much combined could be too much and cause the burning.

What to do:

Combine the water, oats, and butter in a medium saucepan and heat over medium-high heat until the mixture comes to a boil. Cook until it’s very thick, stirring constantly (to prevent burning or sticking) for about 5 minutes.

Put the whole mess in a large metal or other heat-proof bowl and let it cool for 15 minutes. Add the flour, sugar, wheat germ/ground flaxseed, eggs, cinnamon, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and fruit, if you’re going that way.

Cook ‘em up. I like smaller pancakes, so I used a smaller ice cream scoop to dole out the batter, but about 1/3 to 1/2 cup of batter for each pancake is fine. Spread the batter out a bit (since it is thick). Cook the pancakes until they’re golden brown and cooked through, about 4 minutes per side (YMMV depending on size and spread).

Eat. They don’t even need syrup, really, because there’s sugar and fruit inside and the oatmeal makes them moist. But you might want syrup, so who am I to tell you that you can’t have it?

This is the time of year for baking this pie. I made one for Thanksgiving and might make these as Christmas gifts for co-workers because, well, they look nice and smell great.

It’s somewhat labor intensive because you’re making the caramel, but worth it. I fully endorse slacking off and buying a premade crust if life calls for it.

You’ll also need a pastry brush and a cup of water handy for when you’re making the caramel so you can brush down the sides of the saucepan.

For the filling, you need:

• 1 1/3 cups sugar
• 1/3 cups water
• 1 cup whipping cream
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups coarsely chopped pecans

For the crust, you need:

• 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) chilled unsalted butter cut into small pieces
• 2 tablespoons ice water

CRUST:

1. Stir flour, sugar, cinnamon and salt together in a mixing bowl until blended. Add butter. Combine with hands or pastry cutter until it resembles coarse oatmeal.

2. Mix in enough ice water by tablespoons to form clumps. Gather into a ball, flatten, and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill for at least an hour. It’s good for a day.

3. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Roll out the dough to form a 14 inch round.

4. Place dough into an 11 inch diameter pan. Fold over excess dough to form double-thick sides. Freeze until firm, about 15 minutes.

5. Line the crust with foil and throw in pie weights or dried beans. Bake until sides are set, about 20 minutes. Remove foil and bake an additional 15 minutes or until crust is golden brown. Remove to cool and lower oven temp to 350 degrees F.

FILLING:

1. Combine sugar and water in a heavy medium saucepan. Stir over medium-low heat until the sugar dissolves.

2. Increase heat. Boil without stirring until caramel is a deep amber color. Occasionally brush down the sides of the pan with a wet pastry brush and swirl the pan to gauge the color. This process should take between 8 and 12 minutes. Remove from heat.

B.N.: When the caramel is apple juice yellow in color, you’re almost there. At this point, watch over it carefully because one minute too long and it will burn. You want a deep honey, amber or caramel color.

3. Slowly add the cream. The mixture will bubble and hiss. Stir with a whisk until caramel is smooth. If a clump forms, place over LOW heat until it smoothes out. Mix in vanilla and salt. Cool caramel for at least 30 minutes.

4. Whisk eggs in a bowl to blend. Add caramel mixture. Sprinkle pecans into the crust. Slowly pour the caramel over the nuts. It will have to find room in all the spaces between nuts.

Note: For purely esthetic reasons, I like to take some unchopped pecan halves and place them neatly on the top (flipping them over first so they get caramel on all sides) to give the pie a nice finished look.

5. Bake until the caramel sets which will take about 35-45 minutes. Transfer to a rack and cool completely.

Serve this with rum-laced whipped cream or vanilla ice cream on the side - with the pie warmed up because it’s so much tastier that way.