Bircher Müesli

/ September 11, 2015

Autumn has arrived in England – we know this because it’s suddenly sunny and warm outside, unlike in Summer, when it was rainy and miserable for most of the time. Autumn means shorter days, giant spider webs, yellowing leaves and, for me at last, a change in my daily breakfast routine.Bircher Muesli mix

Whereas in the summer I like all sorts of flakes or crunchy cereals, with the colder weather I crave a more comforting fare, such as this traditional Bircher Müesli. It differs from porrige, (which I like in Winter) in that the oats are not boiled, but instead soaked overnight in fruit juice. Maximilian Oskar Bircher Brenner, the Swiss doctor who is generally credited not only with making this dish popular, but also with starting the entire wholefoods movement in the early 20th Century, came across the dish when hiking in the Swiss alps. He was desperate to get his patients to consume more raw apples, which he believed to be the superfood of all superfoods. He knew he had found the solution when he was served the mash of oats, grated apples and chopped hazelnuts in a small hut in the mountains.

Over the years Bircher Brenner’s dinner has become a successful breakfast dish: the condensed milk he favoured has since been replaced with milk, yoghurt or even cream, and it’s really up to you what fruit you want to use, or whether or not to sweeten it. Honey is quite common, but I could imagine maple syrup, too. I don’t use either as I don’t really like anything too sweet in the morning.

The word ‘Müesli’, by the way, is the Swiss diminutive for mash, ‘Mus’. In Swiss German you can make anything smaller by adding ‘li’, and by adding the ¨ or ‘Umlaut’ to the previous vowel. Thus a man, ‘Maa’, becomes a ‘Männli’ and a mouse, ‘Muus’ a ‘Müsli’. The latter illustrates why it is quite important you spell your ‘Müesli’ with both an ü and an e, especially when you’re talking to Swiss people; last thing you’d want them to think is that you’re serving them small mice!

Bircher Müesli (serves 2)

  • 1/2 cup porridge oats
  • 1/2 cup apple juice, orange juice or even Bircher Brenner’s lemon juice
  • 2 apples, grated
  • 2 tbs chopped hazelnuts, almonds or other nuts
  • raisins or other dried fruit, to taste
  • fresh fruit, such as bananas, berries, grapes etc, to taste
  • 5 tbs natural or Greek yoghurt
  • some milk, to taste

Ideally you should soak the oats overnight in the juice, especially when using the larger, coarser oats. Most ‘normal’ oats can be soaked for half an hour in the morning as they are smaller and finer.Bircher Muesli soaking

Just before serving, grate the apples into the oats and add the other ingredients.Bircher Muesli blueberry

You want to get a nice balance of soft and crunchy textures. Add milk if you prefer, and sugar, honey or similar. Bircher Muesli mixed

I hope you enjoy this healthy breakfast treat! I brought it along to this week’s Fiesta Friday – as I am already more than fashionably late I hope Angie and her co-hosts,  Kaila @ GF Life 24/7 and Jenny @ Dragonfly Home Recipes, won’t mind me bringing the morning-after dish …

 

 

 

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26 thoughts on “Bircher Müesli”

  6. I love muesli too! (Sorry, I’m not sure how to make the umlaut on my keyboard). 🙂 Thank you for the history behind it. I really enjoyed learning about that. My husband and I once stayed in a bed and breakfast place in Ottawa, Ontario, run by a Swiss family. They served the best muesli for breakfast! It looked a lot like yours. Thank you for bringing it to the Fiesta–perfect for the morning after!

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    • I didn’t know about the history either, at least not in that much detail! Whole foods have been popular for decades in Germany, and I grew up pretty much in rebellion against it (no wholemeal cakes for me, thank you!). But age is a great healer … 😉
      Thanks for the co-hosting – hope you like it!

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  10. Sounds like y’all are having some crazy weather. Here, we had a heat wave in September after a fairly calm summer. Crazy! Your müesli looks delicious! I love the balance of textures. Thank you so much for bringing this dish to the fiesta this week, and I hope you had a wonderful weekend. 🙂

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