The breakfast of champions

One of my favorite foods is a simple one – bircher muesli.  It’s a concoction of whole grains, nuts and maybe dried fruits soaked overnight in a mixture of milk and yogurt and then topped with fresh berries and honey.  So simple, but packed with so many good things and so appealing that it was always easy to choose this over bacon and eggs.   It was created by a Swiss physician named Maximilian Bircher-Benner for hospital patients, but has since become a breakfast staple at top hotels around the world and I order it whenever I see it on the menu.

I never knew exactly how my bircher mueslis were made but I could tell that everyone makes them slightly differently.  So I was surprised and delighted when I got Hotel Baur au Lac’s recipe in my mailbox yesterday.  Baur au Lac is one of the leading hotels in Switzerland, a country where hospitality is serious business.  After all, it’s where the The Hotel School of Lausanne is based.  Baur au Lac was named the #3 hotel in all of  Northern Europe by Conde Naste Traveler in its November Readers’ Choice Awards issue.

Birchermüesli Baur au Lac (Serves 3-4)

Ingredients:
¼ cup oatmeal
¼ cup granulated sugar
½ cup farmer’s cheese
½ cup plain yogurt
1/3 cup half & half
½ cup lemon juice
1 cup orange juice
¼ cup golden apples, peeled and chopped
¼ cup pears, peeled and chopped
½ cup bananas
1/3 cup strawberries
1/5 cup blackberries
1/5 cup blueberries
¼ cup raspberries

Preparation
Mix all ingredients to combine, and enjoy!

This is a luxurious version of bircher muesli and supposedly one of the best.  Personally, I use nonfat greek yogurt, nonfat milk and skip the farmer’s cheese, and it’s great that way too.  Thanks to Baur au Lac for sharing their recipe!