Bircher muesli: cold oats devised by a Swiss doctor
The original muesli was not a bag of mixed flakes but an apple dish — the oats were an addition, not the base. It was devised by the Swiss physician Maximilian Bircher-Benner around 1900 for patients at his sanatorium; in the first version the oats were soaked in water and sweetened with condensed milk. This recipe is closer to today's Swiss Birchermüesli, and it differs from ordinary overnight oats in two ways that make all the difference: the apple is grated in the morning, immediately before eating, and cream goes in alongside the yogurt.
Your own work in that: 18 min.
- Soaking 480 min
- Apples 10 min
- Serving 8 min
Step by step
0 / 4 doneSoak the oats overnight
Cover the oats with the milk, add the juice of half a lemon and a pinch of salt, stir, cover and refrigerate 8 hours. By morning the oats are swollen and soft and the milk almost entirely absorbed.
Ingredients: 200 g rolled oats · 300 ml milk · 1 pcs lemon, juice · 1 pinch salt
TipThick rolled oats keep their structure and stay noticeable in the mouth. Instant oats collapse into gruel within two hours.
Eight hours and the oats have swollenGrate the apples in the morning
In the morning grate the apples on the coarse holes, skin on, straight into the oats, and immediately stir through the remaining lemon juice. The skin adds colour and fibre, and the lemon stops the flesh browning on contact with air.
Ingredients: 2 pcs apples · 200 g natural yogurt · 100 ml whipping cream (30%) · 3 tbsp honey
TipApple grated the night before will be darker, soft and watery by morning, even with lemon. That is the only reason this recipe splits into two stages.
In the morning, skin on, lemon straight awayFold in yogurt and cream
Add the yogurt, cream and honey and stir. The mixture should be creamy but not runny — a spoon should stand in it briefly. Too thick? Add milk. Too loose? Add two spoons of oats and wait 10 minutes.
Ingredients: 2 pcs apples · 200 g natural yogurt · 100 ml whipping cream (30%) · 3 tbsp honey
Creamy; a spoon holds in the mixtureServe with nuts and fruit
Spoon into bowls and scatter with toasted almonds, fruit and cinnamon. Add nuts always on top, never into the mixture — soaked, they lose their crunch within a quarter of an hour, and crunch is the main contrast this dish has.
Ingredients: 60 g almonds · 150 g blueberries · ½ tsp cinnamon
Almonds on top, never stirred in
Before you start
How it differs from overnight oats
Overnight oats are flakes soaked in milk and nothing more. Bircher has apple, cream and lemon, which makes it fresher, sharper and richer in flavour.
A lighter version
Leave out the cream and increase the yogurt to 300 g. It comes out sharper and looser; add an extra spoon of honey to balance it.
How long it keeps
The oat and milk base keeps three days in the fridge, so soak a triple batch at once. Add apple, yogurt and cream each morning to the portion you are about to eat.
Other fruit
Pear instead of apple (grated the same way), banana mashed with a fork, raspberries folded in at the end. Apple remains closest to the original and holds up best to grating.
