Working through Around My French Table and now Baking Chez Moi, I’m so often struck by the cultural heterogeneity that is France.
Just as languages bear the traces of migration, conflict, and trade, so too do our recipe boxes. In a country such as France, that’s seen millennia of shifting borders, population, and governance, it’s not surprising that French cuisine is diverse. Of course, the menus of the French restaurants of my youth didn’t reflect that at all.
It took discovering writers like Julia Child, Elizabeth David, and M.F.K. Fisher to show me the breadth of French cuisine. It took joining French Fridays with Dorie to fully explore the reaches of French cooking in my own kitchen.
This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie dish is a gift from its neighbour, Germany. Kuchen (which really just means cake) is itself a dish full of diversity – the word has travelled all around the world and depending on your destination, kuchen can be cheesecake-like, strudel-ish, reminiscent of coffee cake, or nearly pie.
It can also be this: a tender tart crust that’s also sturdy enough to hold butter-soaked cookie crumbs, topped with roasted apples and boozy dried fruit, suspended in a rum-flavoured custard. It was just as good as it sounds and don’t be fooled by the toasty bits on top – the last step is slathering the top with sugar and butter and running the cake under the broiler. I had to stop myself from nibbling at these bits of fruit and content myself with those on my own piece.
I was very content, as you might imagine.
You can find the rest of the Tuesdays with Dorie crew’s entries on this recipe here: Apple Kuchen.
One Wet Foot 
Teresa, I just stopped by to say that I loved this post. Your description of the küchen is just scrumptious and I loved how you ended it! I’m salivating over here.
Thank you so much, Katie!
Your background on the kuchen adds context to just a delicious tart we’ve made. I agree that this kuchen has it all.
Thanks, Shirley – this is one I’m going to be making again and again!
Great post and a lovely kuchen!
I wasn’t put off by the toasty topping at all – knew what you were up to with the broiler. And, like you, I would have been sneaking a few of those crusties when no one was looking. Your Kuchen looks delicious. Am into making apple goodies right now so this may fill the bill. I don’t know if I’ve ever made a kuchen before but I like yours.
Love anything with apples and this was quite nice. Not great, but nice. Pretty kuchen.
Glad you enjoyed it – your kuchen looks wonderful. I skipped the broiler part as I don’t have a broiler, but it sounds as though it made it extra tasty.
Your kuchen looks just perfect. The curst is really not too dark. To me this was just ok.
Teresa, your kuchen looks fantastic. We loved this both a room temp. and also chilled the next
day. It didn’t take too long to finish this one off.
I had thought that a kuchen was coffee-cake style with some fruit…until this recipe had me do some extra research. I liked this one a lot, too, and yours looks delicious!
Nice write up on the culture of baking. It is nice to see you in our group this week. Looks like your kuchen came out perfect.
Oh, this is one of my most favorite of Dorie’s recipes! Perfect for apple season 🙂
It’s a toss up between this and Marie-Helene’s apple cake for me. They’re both so perfect for right now.
I love the toasty bits on top too! It’s a great recipe to come back to the group with!
So glad you’re back! 🙂
This was SO good, right?