Learn Hardcore German: Das Frühstück besteht aus Brot und Obst.

If you said Das Frühstück ist Brot und Obst, it would be understandable, but it sounds less natural and more like an identity statement (“Breakfast is bread and fruit”) rather than describing its components. Bestehen aus clearly expresses composition.

What exactly does bestehen aus mean, and is it one word or two?

Bestehen aus is a verb + preposition combination:

bestehen = to consist / to exist / to pass (an exam, in other contexts)
aus = from / out of / of

Together bestehen aus means “to consist of / to be composed of.” It is not a separable prefix verb.
So you say:

Das Frühstück besteht aus Brot und Obst.
Woraus besteht das Frühstück? – “What does the breakfast consist of?”

In the perfect tense:

Das Frühstück hat aus Brot und Obst bestanden.

Why is the preposition aus used here, and which case does it take?

Aus is the usual preposition in German to talk about the material or components something is made of:

Der Tisch ist aus Holz. – “The table is (made) of wood.”
Die Suppe besteht aus Gemüse. – “The soup consists of vegetables.”

Aus always takes the dative case.
Here, Brot and Obst are both neuter singular nouns, and their dative singular form looks the same as the nominative (no visible change):

nominative: das Brot, das Obst
dative: dem Brot, dem Obst

Because there is no article in the sentence, you don’t see any case ending, but grammatically it is dative after aus.

Why is there no article before Brot and Obst (no das Brot, das Obst)?

German often omits the article with mass/uncountable nouns and with food in a general sense:

Ich esse Brot. – “I eat bread.”
Wir trinken Kaffee. – “We drink coffee.”

In Das Frühstück besteht aus Brot und Obst, we’re talking about bread and fruit in general, not specific pieces (like “the bread we bought yesterday”).

If you added articles:

… besteht aus dem Brot und dem Obst.

it would sound like you are referring to very specific, already identified bread and fruit (and it sounds strange in this context). The natural phrasing is without articles.

What genders are Frühstück, Brot, and Obst?

All three are neuter:

das Frühstück – breakfast
das Brot – bread
das Obst – fruit

Some extra notes:

Frühstück: plural die Frühstücke exists but is not used often (e.g. in hotels: zwei Frühstücke).
Brot: plural die Brote is used for separate loaves or types: zwei Brote = two loaves of bread.
Obst is usually uncountable; you normally don’t say “Obste”. For types of fruit, Germans often say Obstsorten (“kinds of fruit”).

Why is it Das Frühstück and not die or der Frühstück?

The gender of Frühstück is simply part of its dictionary entry: it is neuter, so it takes das.

There is no logical rule that would let you deduce this from the form of the word; you just have to learn das Frühstück as a chunk.

In the sentence:

Das Frühstück – nominative singular, subject of the sentence.
besteht – verb.
aus Brot und Obst – prepositional phrase describing its components.

Why are Frühstück, Brot and Obst capitalized?

In German, all nouns are capitalized, regardless of where they occur in the sentence.

Since Frühstück, Brot, and Obst are all nouns, they must be written with a capital initial letter:

das Frühstück
das Brot
das Obst

This is a standard rule and one of the most visible differences from English spelling.

Could the word order be different, like Brot und Obst bestehen das Frühstück?

No, that would sound wrong and unidiomatic.

Bestehen aus is used as a fixed structure: etwas besteht aus + Dativ.
You cannot turn the ingredients into the grammatical subject in that way.

The natural pattern is:

[Whole] besteht aus [Teilen].
→ Das Frühstück besteht aus Brot und Obst.

If you want Brot und Obst at the front, you would typically change the verb and structure, for example:

Brot und Obst gibt es zum Frühstück. – “There is bread and fruit for breakfast.”

Can this sentence be used in other tenses?

Yes. Bestehen aus works normally in different tenses:

Present: Das Frühstück besteht aus Brot und Obst.
Simple past: Das Frühstück bestand aus Brot und Obst.
Present perfect: Das Frühstück hat aus Brot und Obst bestanden.
Future: Das Frühstück wird aus Brot und Obst bestehen.

The meaning stays the same (“consist of”); only the time reference changes.

Is there another common way to say the same thing in German?

Yes, very commonly Germans would say:

Zum Frühstück gibt es Brot und Obst.
literally: “For breakfast there is bread and fruit.”

This focuses a bit more on what is available/served at breakfast, but in context it often expresses almost the same idea as Das Frühstück besteht aus Brot und Obst.

How do you pronounce Frühstück, especially the ü and ch?

Frühstück is roughly:

Früh – similar to “froo” but with ü:
Say “ee” (as in see), then round your lips as if saying “oo” while keeping the tongue in the “ee” position.
stück – like “shtook” but shorter; ü again as above; final ck is just a hard “k”.

The ch in Frühstück is the “soft” ch (like in ich), not the harsh one in Bach. Air is squeezed softly between the tongue and the hard palate, just behind the front teeth.

So roughly: FRÜÜ-shtük (with both ü sounds the same).