Apple Kuchen Memories

Sometimes, the only thing to do on a rainy Sunday night is to bust out a new cookbook and make something that you've never made before. In this case, it was the Golden Book of Baking that my sister-in-law gave me for my birthday (thanks, Eva!) and the recipe was Apple Kuchen Crumble. This was the recipe of choice for a couple of reasons: 1) I had 3 pounds of frozen, sliced apples in my freezer that needed to get used, and 2) I was actually home for the several hours required for raising and proofing the dough.

For those of you that didn't grow up with off-the-boat German grandmothers for whom baking was a part of life and not something to blog home about, apple kuchen (cake) is a German pastry with a bread-dough like base that's topped with sliced apples and a crumb topping or maybe a light glaze. It's not overly sweet, as the focus is on the fruit, and it was the de rigeur dessert at many of our family holiday dinners.

The thing that was great about my Grandma Bertha was that everything she baked she considered healthy, because it was after all, "nothing but eggs, flour, butter, and sugar." Needless to say, I am quite the fan of my Grandma's philosophy on baked goods.

Below is the kuchen, before it went in the oven:

Considering the apples were not totally thawed out and somewhat waterlogged from the freezer, the kuchen turned out pretty well. The bottom crust got a little more brown than I would have liked, but the coworkers who were the recipients of said kuchen only had positive things to say.

The next kuchen I attempt will be my Grandma's actual recipe, which I first need to translate from her handwritten, German cookbook. (This serves as a notice to my German-speaking friends that I may be hitting you up for translation assistance--you've been warned! ...But there'll probably be a rich, buttery kuchen in it for you!)