Breakfast
Bircher oats with honeyed apples & roast apple purée
Bircher oats can best be described as a cold, fruity porridge. The oats and apple are steeped in liquid overnight, plumping and softening. It means that breakfast can be pulled, fully formed, from the fridge in the morning. This version is all about the apples. They are grated raw into the traditional bircher mix, and we’ve added two possible toppings to celebrate the UK apple season: honeyed apples and a spiced, roast apple purée. Try one, the other, or both.
Cook's notes
We’ve added two possible toppings to celebrate the UK apple season. Try one, the other, or both.
Ingredients
For the bircher:
- 1 large apple, coarsely grated
- 1 lemon
- 100g oats (soaked overnight in the milk)
- 325ml milk or almond milk
For the honeyed apples:
- 2 apples
- 1½ tbsp butter
- 2 tbsp runny honey
For the apple purée:
- 4 large apples
- small pinch of fine sea salt
- ¼ tsp allspice – optional
- 1 lemon - optional
Method
For the bircher:
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Step 1
Start by making your bircher oats. In a large bowl, mix the apple with a good squeeze of lemon, before stirring in the oats and milk. Cover and transfer to the fridge overnight.
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Step 2
In the morning, give it a quick mix and add a little extra milk if it seems too thick. Top with one or both of the apple accompaniments.
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Step 3
To make the honeyed apples, core the apples and cut each one into 12 equal wedges.
For the honeyed apples:
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Step 1
Warm the butter in a large frying pan and add the apples. Cook over a medium heat for 10 minutes, turning often, until starting to soften.
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Step 2
Add the honey and cook for a final 5 minutes, until they are sticky and caramelised.
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Step 3
Serve warm straight from the pan or lay out on baking parchment to cool. Leftovers can be cooled and stored in the fridge for a few days.
For the apple purée:
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Step 1
To make the apple purée, preheat your oven to 200˚C. Remove and discard the cores from all 4 apples. Keep them whole and place them in a roasting tray – although it doesn’t feel right, you don’t need any oil or butter. Roast for 30 minutes, until blistered and soft.
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Step 2
Throw the apples into a food processor and whizz into a purée. Tip it into a fine sieve and use a spatula or the back of a ladle to encourage the purée through – this should remove any tough bits of skin.
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Step 3
Add a very small pinch of salt and mix well. Add a little allspice if you want some warm spicing, and a little squeeze of lemon if you’d like it sharper.