[jazzy music] You know blueberries, fresh blueberries are my favorite berry for in the morning.

You don't have to peel them, you don't have to seed them, you don't have to do anything other than tumble them into a delicious bowl of something like this great granola porridge we're gonna make today.

So let's get started.

So what I have in this sauce pan is some water and some milk that I'm bringing up to a low boil.

And now I'm gonna add a big pinch of salt and oatmeal.

[mellow music] Sometimes they're called pin oats or Irish oats and they're nubby and they have texture and they have character.

And already that alone is gonna make this oatmeal more interesting than a lot of the oatmeal perhaps you've tried in the past.

So now I'm gonna turn the heat down to medium low, maybe low.

You want this in a very gentle simmer, so that it won't boil over.

And these are gonna cook until they're thick and creamy.

Maybe about 20 minutes or so.

And in the meantime I'm gonna start on the finishing touch for this recipe, which is this delicious infused maple cream.

So I've got a little sauce pan here and I'm gonna put about a cup of heavy cream in there.

And I'm going to start with a vanilla bean.

I love what vanilla beans do in a recipe.

It gives a bold, fresh punch of vanilla that extract just can't deliver.

So when you use a vanilla bean, you wanna make sure that it is fresh enough that you can bend it.

If it snaps in two, it's probably a little bit past it's prime freshness.

And then take the tip of a knife, and just split this bean down the middle length wise.

Doesn't have to be exactly in the middle, but you wanna be able to pull it apart, and there are these delicious little seeds.

These little black bits are actually seeds and drop them down in the pot so they can start releasing their flavor.

And once you have most of them scraped out, make sure you drop the whole thing in there 'cause there is flavor in every little bit.

And I'm gonna turn this on low because as this cream warms up, all these flavors from these things start infusing.

That just means releasing into the cream so that every minute it spins on the heat, it is developing even more flavor and aroma and deliciousness.

I'm gonna put in a cinnamon stick, and then I'm gonna put in orange zest.

[relaxing music] And there is more flavor in that zest than there is in the juice.

Plus the zest means that the cream won't curdle, and just drop these little ribbons down in.

And that's it.

I'm gonna put this over low heat, and give this mixture maybe 10 or 15 minutes so that the cream can absorb these delicious flavors.

I'm also gonna keep an eye on my oatmeal.

You want it at a good active simmer, but not at a boil.

I'll just come by and give it a little stir from time to time.

That's all!

You know you can tell when this is ready because of the wonderful aromas in the air.

We get that little whiff of cinnamon.

We have this delicious orange scent in the air, and you can smell the vanilla.

We're gonna take them out before we add our last ingredient.

Now, our final ingredient is maple syrup.

And this is true, pure maple syrup, not just a pancake topping.

And I'm gonna put it in and then put this back on the heat, and that maple is going to join the party.

And then this cream is going to continue to reduce.

It will almost look like melted ice cream, and you can see those little vanilla bean specs.

This is delicious.

And your kitchen is gonna smell great.

So look what's happened here.

This little combination of cream and all those delicious things.

We practically have a sauce here, so I'm gonna take it off the heat and finish up the oatmeal.

Our oats are deliciously thick and creamy.

And I wanna show you something about oats.

If you're cooking the Irish oats or the pin oats, they get really thick as they cook.

And I want you to give them a little taste right before you take them off the heat to make sure they're creamy.

And if they need a little bit more cooking, you can always add a splash of water.

I got lucky and mine turned out just right on the first try.

I'm gonna put in a good pat of butter, and we're gonna stir it in until it begins to melt.

And then I'm going to add granola.

Sometimes I call this my granola porridge.

So that's probably a cup.

Put as much as you'd like.

And I'm gonna fold that in and look what's happening.

We're transforming an ordinary pot of oatmeal into something really special.

And then look, here's our star ingredient, those beautiful, delicious, fresh blueberries.

Now by putting them in at the very end, there's gonna be a little gentle warmth from that oatmeal that warms them up.

But we're not cooking the berries, 'cause we wanna keep them juicy and whole and delicious.

So here's all that's left to do.

Take a bowl, your big favorite bowl, and give yourself a delicious scoop.

And then last but not least, here comes our maple cream.

And we're gonna drizzle that over the top.

The aroma in this is unbelievable.

And you know I always finish with another little pinch of salt.

This is something my grandmother did.

She always put a tiny bit of salt on our oatmeal, and it just brings up all those other flavors.

And then we must have a bite.

[cheerful salsa music] That is so good.

You have, the oats, the great oats.

You have the crunch of the nuts, you have the nubbiness of that granola, you have the burst of the fresh blueberries with all their juicy goodness.

And then that cream, it's amazing what this cream does to this whole dish.

It adds sweetness, it adds flavor, it adds aroma.

This is the best bowl of oatmeal with blueberries you will ever have.

I just love it, and I think you're going to as well.