muesli — Switzerland

Muesli is a breakfast dish built on rolled oats soaked until soft and combined with grated fruit, chopped nuts, dried fruit and a dairy element such as milk, yogurt or curd cheese. The oats swell overnight, giving the dish a creamy, spoonable texture rather than the crunch of a dry cereal mix. The dish is reported from German-speaking Switzerland, where it is closely associated with Zürich and its surrounding region, and it is often called Bircher-müesli after the physician credited with popularizing it as a light meal for his patients. In French-speaking Switzerland the same dish is generally known simply as bircher and appears at breakfast, tea time and supper alike. Preparation starts the evening before: rolled oats are covered with milk, water or a mix of the two and left to swell in the refrigerator. In the morning a grated apple is folded in along with a squeeze of lemon juice, which keeps the fruit from browning, plus chopped hazelnuts, raisins or other dried fruit, and a spoonful of yogurt, condensed milk or cream to bind everything together. A drizzle of honey adjusts the sweetness. What sets this Swiss preparation apart from the sweetened, oven-toasted granola sold elsewhere is the soaking step and the absence of any cooking: the oats are never baked or fried, and the fruit is added raw and grated rather than dried and candied. The result is softer and tangier from the lemon and apple, closer to a spoonable porridge than to a crunchy mix, which is why it is eaten straight from the bowl.