Muesli is, as one Swiss publication points out, the only Swiss dish to have entered the English language, and it began in a Zurich clinic. Around 1900 the physician Maximilian Bircher Benner, who believed in the healing power of raw fruit and vegetables, began serving his patients a dish inspired by the simple evening meals of Alpine herders: a little soaked oats, a great deal of grated apple, nuts, lemon juice and sweetened condensed milk, which he used because ordinary milk at the time could not be trusted to be safe. He called it Apfeldiätspeise, apple diet dish, and served it in the evening. His patients, and later the whole country, simply called it Birchermüesli, the Swiss German word meaning a little mush.

The original was mostly apple with a spoonful of oats; the version eaten all over Switzerland today has more oats, softened overnight in milk, and creamy yogurt. It is mostly a breakfast now, though some Swiss still eat it for supper, and countless ready made versions fill the shelves of Swiss shops. It needs no cooking at all, only a grater and a night in the fridge, and few breakfasts are better company for an early race from the other side of the world.

The soaked oats

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups (115 g) old fashioned rolled oats
• 1 cup (240 ml) whole milk
• 1/4 cup (60 ml) water or apple juice
• a pinch fine salt

Method

1. Put the oats, milk, water or juice and salt in the bowl and stir well so every flake is wet. Cover and refrigerate overnight, or for at least 8 hours.

Toasted hazelnuts

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup (45 g) hazelnuts

Method

1. Put the nuts in the dry skillet over medium heat and toast for 4 to 5 minutes, shaking the pan often, until fragrant. Tip them onto the board immediately so they do not keep cooking in the hot pan.
2. When cool enough to handle, rub off any loose skins between your palms and chop the nuts coarsely with the knife.

Apple and finishing

Ingredients

• 1/2 lemon
• 3 crisp, tart apples
• 3/4 cup (180 g) plain whole milk yogurt
• 2 tablespoons honey or sweetened condensed milk
• 1 cup (150 g) fresh berries or other fruit

Method

1. Squeeze the lemon juice into a clean bowl. Holding each apple by the stalk, grate it on the coarse side of the box grater, turning as you go, down to the core. Discard the core and pips. Stir the grated apple into the lemon juice after each apple.
2. Tip the apple and lemon into the soaked oats, add the yogurt and honey or condensed milk, and stir gently until evenly mixed. Taste and add a little more honey if your apples were very tart.
3. Spoon into the bowls or glasses and scatter the berries and toasted nuts over the top. Serve at once, while the apple is fresh and the nuts are crunchy.

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