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Alpen the breakfast cereal

alligande

By alligande
in Cooking

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ludja

ludja

Posted
Posted

I used to love this cereal as a kid. I'm sure I would still like it, but it had fallen off my radar for some reason. I'll have to look and see if they have it in stores out here.

Not really an answer to your question, but I found this list of ingredients for it here

Ingredients:

Organic rolled oats, organic whole wheat, raisins (may be coated with expeller pressed canola or sunflower oil), organic pearled barley, brown sugar, roasted hazelnuts, skim milk powder, sliced almonds. Fortification Blend: ferric orthophosphate, sodium ascorbate, vitamin A acetate, niacinamide, zinc oxide, folic acid, cyanocobalamin, vitamin D, pyridoxine hydrochloride, riboflavin, thiamin mononitrate

(bolding is added by me).

I'm not sure how to incorporate the whole wheat and the pearled barley...

As I recall, we used to eat the cereal cold rather than heating it up, so I guess at least some of the grains must be pre-cooked or processed in some way.

Do others eat the cereal cold, too?

"Under the dusty almond trees, ... stalls were set up which sold banana liquor, rolls, blood puddings, chopped fried meat, meat pies, sausage, yucca breads, crullers, buns, corn breads, puff pastes, longanizas, tripes, coconut nougats, rum toddies, along with all sorts of trifles, gewgaws, trinkets, and knickknacks, and cockfights and lottery tickets."

-- Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 1962 "Big Mama's Funeral"

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BeeZee

BeeZee

Posted
Posted

I used to love this as a kid, my Mom would indulge me occassionally and buy it (now I know why, it must have been pretty pricey). I had a bad incident with it when I was a kid where I opened it up and there were bugs in it and it totally turned me off, haven't eaten it since. Although I did look at it in the store recently and decided I just didn't need such a calorie-dense breakfast cereal! I thought I remembered a sort of "malty" flavor, but didn't see anything on the ingredients to indicate that. I always ate it cold.

"Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast" - Oscar Wilde

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ludja

ludja

Posted
Posted (edited)
Alpen is just a form of muesli, for which there are numerous recipes. Wikipedia has the original formula for birchermuesli, but most recipes include lots of dried fruit and nuts.

Good point. We do have an earlier thread on Bircher Muesli and the Alpen ingredients are essentially similar.

I also found out that there are things called "barley flakes" and "wheat flakes". I saw some sources that said wheat flakes could be malted... So, it might be possible to make a dry muesli that also includes these grains.

Edited by ludja (log)

"Under the dusty almond trees, ... stalls were set up which sold banana liquor, rolls, blood puddings, chopped fried meat, meat pies, sausage, yucca breads, crullers, buns, corn breads, puff pastes, longanizas, tripes, coconut nougats, rum toddies, along with all sorts of trifles, gewgaws, trinkets, and knickknacks, and cockfights and lottery tickets."

-- Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 1962 "Big Mama's Funeral"

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FatTony

FatTony

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Posted

I grew up eating Alpen and still do from time to time. For me the distinctive taste comes from the addition of powdered milk. Don't ask me why they add it but I'm pretty sure it's in there. Come to think of it, I've always felt Alpen has a creamier taste and mouthfeel than other muesli.

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jennahan

jennahan

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I grew up eating Alpen and still do from time to time. For me the distinctive taste comes from the addition of powdered milk. Don't ask me why they add it but I'm pretty sure it's in there. Come to think of it, I've always felt Alpen has a creamier taste and mouthfeel than other muesli.

I was just about to mention this, too. It does include dried skim milk powder, which was the reason I had to stop buying it (son is allergic to milk). I too ate it cold, but would add additional dried fruit to the mixture. Alpen has a no-sugar added blend, in addition to the original. Sugar makes a BIG difference.

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alligande

alligande

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  • Topic Starter
Posted
I grew up eating Alpen and still do from time to time. For me the distinctive taste comes from the addition of powdered milk. Don't ask me why they add it but I'm pretty sure it's in there. Come to think of it, I've always felt Alpen has a creamier taste and mouthfeel than other muesli.

I was just about to mention this, too. It does include dried skim milk powder, which was the reason I had to stop buying it (son is allergic to milk). I too ate it cold, but would add additional dried fruit to the mixture. Alpen has a no-sugar added blend, in addition to the original. Sugar makes a BIG difference.

I actually like the sugar less version, the orginal is a to sweet for me. Thanks for the input

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PicnicChef

PicnicChef

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Wow...I used to eat that all the time. Forgot about it. Always ate it cold, and tomorrow morning, before breakfast, will run out and get a box. I liked it over plain yoghurt sometimes, or when decadent, with half and half instead of milk. Yipppeeee! That is good.

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