Nigel Slater’s recipes for baked apple Bircher muesli, and date and raisin loaf
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Sweet and comforting midwinter specials bring fruity warmth to dark days. In the tall cupboard next to the fireplace sits a row of fat glass jars, like those in an old-fashioned sweetshop. Jars that contain rolled oats and golden raisins, pumpkin seeds and flaked almonds. There’s a screw-capped pot of chia seeds as grey as a January sky and a glowing jar of amber maple syrup. This cupboard is where I mix oats with seeds and dried fruits for Bircher muesli and where I keep bread for toast – a breakfast cupboard if you like. It is close to the hob where flaked almonds are toasted in a cast-iron pan. Almonds that will introduce a pleasing snap and crackle to my winter breakfast, just as Ricicles did all those years ago.
![[Nigel Slater]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/uploads/2017/10/09/Nigel_Slater,-L.png?width=75&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Grain steeped in apple juice or milk tends be called “overnight oats” nowadays, but to me it will be forever be known as Bircher muesli, even though my own inclusion of kefir and chia seeds would have seemed heretical to the late Dr Bircher-Benner, the inventor of this healthy breakfast. His recipe for “little mush” contained as much apple as oats. Mine slightly less so, the russets or Cox’s coarsely grated and stirred in late in the proceedings to keep their winter crispness.
![[‘We debated whether to butter or not. The consensus was a strong no…’ Date and raisin loaf.]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/b427fd1180655b32d6d366d649458c142306e289/129_0_4958_6193/master/4958.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
On particularly cold days, the apples will be baked rather than raw. When the oven is on, I take the opportunity to put in a few fat Bramleys, apples that will froth in the heat. Scraped from its glossy brown skin, the flesh is kept in a bowl until ready to be stirred into muesli, a tub of custard or over a cold roast pork and crackling sandwich.
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