Thinned Peanut Butter & Banana Baked Oat Fingers

Ingredients

• 100 g (generous 1 cup) porridge oats, briefly blitzed — choose oats labelled gluten-free if you have not yet introduced wheat
• 1 large very ripe banana, about 110 g, mashed completely smooth
• 32 g (2 tbsp) smooth 100% peanut butter, unsalted and no-sugar-added (check the label says peanuts only — no salt, no sugar, no palm oil blends). The amount is deliberate: it puts roughly 2 g of peanut protein into every 3 fingers, which is the size of a single feed in the LEAP trial
• 180 ml (¾ cup) warm water or expressed breast milk — 60 ml to thin the peanut butter and 120 ml for the batter. Plain water is the simplest choice, since baking destroys most of the immune factors in breast milk anyway; either way avoid cow's-milk-based formula here if peanut is the only allergen you want to introduce today
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon (optional, no added sugar)
• 1 tsp mild olive oil, for greasing

Method

1. 1. Heat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan / 350°F). Line an 18 cm (7 in) square tin with baking paper and brush lightly with the olive oil. The tin size is deliberate — it gives a soft slab about 1.5 cm deep that cuts neatly into fingers of the length in the age guide below, rather than a thin, hard cracker.
2. 2. Put the peanut butter in a small bowl and whisk in 60 ml of the warm liquid a splash at a time until it is completely smooth and pourable, about the consistency of a thin pouring sauce. Never serve peanut butter as a thick blob or neat off a spoon — thinning it is what removes the choking risk.
3. 3. Mash the banana until no lumps remain, then stir in the thinned peanut butter, the remaining 120 ml of liquid and the cinnamon.
4. 4. Fold in the oats and leave the mixture to stand for 5 minutes. It should stay soft and spoonable, like a loose porridge — if it stiffens into a dough, beat in another 2–3 tbsp of water. A dry batter bakes into a firm bar that a baby cannot squash.
5. 5. Spread into the tin in an even layer about 1.5 cm thick and bake for 20–22 minutes, until just set and barely golden. Do not bake until dry, crisp or crunchy at the edges.
6. 6. Cool completely in the tin, then lift out and cut to the size for your baby's stage — halving the slab and cutting each half into 2.5 cm-wide strips gives about 14 fingers roughly 9 cm long. Squash a piece between your thumb and forefinger before serving — it must flatten easily under light pressure. If it does not, it is too firm to hand over: crumble it into fruit purée or mashed banana instead (not into dairy yogurt, which would put a second allergen on the tray).
7. 7. Serve at room temperature. Keeps 2 days covered in the fridge, or freeze the fingers flat and defrost fully before serving.