Birchermüesli is the First Overnight Oats Recipe
I fell in love with Birchermüesli in 2012 when I visited Germany for the first time. That was a few years before the overnight oats trend really took off in the USA. I was there for a conference and my husband, being the beer fanatic that he is, couldn’t pass up the opportunity to tag along. We stayed in Freiberg, which is in the area where some of my ancestors lived prior to emigrating. That was just a bonus for me! Our hotel was small and the room was smaller than what we have in the States, but we were in Germany!
We ate breakfast every morning at the hotel. They had a buffet with foods that, while not unfamiliar, were not necessarily common breakfast fare for us in the Midwest. While JD gravitated toward the large display of sausages and cold meats, I leaned more toward what could only be described as the creamiest cold oatmeal I’d ever eaten.
Oatmeal is something I am very familiar with – I was raised on it. But cold oatmeal with apples and raisins and other grains was totally new territory for me and I loved every bite. I couldn’t get enough!
Luckily for me, the conference organizer that year is a good friend – and he had a connection. Not only did I get a great history lesson of Birchermüesli, I also walked away with the recipe for the variation I was gobbling down every morning.
A Brief History of Birchermüesli
Birchermüesli originated in a Swiss health clinic – a sanitorium – in the late 19th century. It was the brainchild of one Dr. Maximilian Bircher-Benner, a physician and somewhat of a pioneer in the world of nutrition.
He believed that too much meat and white bread were bad and fruits, vegetables and nuts made for a better diet. He was a bit ahead of his time as this belief was the opposite of the common practice and thoughts of the time. As a patient at Dr. Bircher-Benner’s sanitorium, you would have a nutritious breakfast of oats soaked in milk mixed with lemon juice, apples, and nuts. This concoction became known as Birchermüesli. You can read more about the good doctor in an article I wrote for our local newspaper.
Click the below links for overnight oats recipes and the original Birchermüesli recipe.
