A tale of two best friends on opposite sides of the world and their quest to cook everything from
Stephanie Alexander's 'The Cook's Companion'

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Bircher Muesli

Bircher with craisins and raspberries

I love bircher muesli. It's so refreshing and you really feel good after eating a bowl of it. During Lent, when we can't have any dairy, this is usually what I have for breakfast instead of cereal and milk. As long as I remember to get the mixture going the night before, we're all good. We pretty much always have everything on hand and at its most basic can be made with just oats and water, although I don't think it would taste that good.

Stephanie's original recipe uses the oats with water, lemon and honey as the base. I did try this, but found it a little bland, and prefer to make it with fruit juice. My favourite is apple juice, but any juice can be used. I also like to mix up the fruit, using nuts, seeds, shredded coconut...whatever is going really! The original recipe also adds a grated apple, which I think is optional when using fruit juice, but it is nice to put something in there, whether it's a grated apple, pear or even some stewed fruit in winter. Again, I find the yoghurt optional and think it's pretty good without it.

The picture at the bottom shows the muesli as made to Stephanie's original recipe. The recipe given below, is the way I like to eat it and is shown in the main picture. Mind you, it's not really a recipe, more of a starting point.

Bircher Muesli (Printable Recipe)
adapted from Stephanie's Bircher Muesli, pg 79
serves 2

1 cup rolled oats
1 cup cloudy apple juice
1/4 cup craisins
raspberries and yoghurt to serve

Mix together the oats, apple juice and craisins in a bowl. Cover and refridgerate overnight. To serve, divide the muesli among 2 bowls. Add raspberries and add yoghurt to taste.

That's it! It really couldn't be simpler.

Stephanie's apple bircher

The apple chip shown in the picture is also a cinch to make. Simply put wafer thin slice of apple onto a lined baking tray and dry in a 110C oven for about an hour.

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