I have to say that I wasn’t too sure about this Apple Kuchen when I started
putting it together. I did not doubt
that it would be tasty…I mean, apples and custard inside a sweet crust….yeah,
that’s good, obvi. This sounded like it
would be the high-rise cousin to the low-rise Alsatian Apple Tart. It’s just that I did not get off to a very
good start making it.
The crust was easy enough to make and roll out, but let me tell you that
getting a soft, delicate crust pressed neatly into a tall springform pan is a
pain in the you-know-what. It was
frustrating enough that the dough cracked into like a 1,000 pieces, but while I
was pressing them back together into something crudely resembling a crust, the
clasp on said springform decided to pop and now will not stay closed (actually,
now it’s in the recycle bin). Ugh. I needed to go with it at that point, so I
put a tight rubber band around the pan to hold it closed, dusted cookie crumbs
on the bottom, piled it full of apples and chucked it in the oven to par
bake. Not my most brilliant idea, as
within a few minutes, the rubber band popped in the heat and the buckle opened
up again, cracking the crust. I
scrambled around and found a small pie pan that was big enough to hold the
springform but tight enough to keep the buckle in the closed position. The dough was still soft at that point and
seemed to come back together when the pan was re-closed, but with all those
apples in there, I really couldn’t tell what condition it was in.
After the par bake, I poured in the crème fraiche custard (confession:I
replaced 1/3 of the crème fraiche amount with buttermilk to lighten the
calories a bit) and scattered on some plumped raisins. I was amazed that the custard did not
immediately leak out the pan, so I hoped for the best. I was just making a half-recipe (6″), but I
left it in the oven the full time. A
knife poked into the center still didn’t come out completely clean after an
hour, but I took it out away. After it
came to room temp, I popped my springform-in-pie-plate contraption it into the
fridge for extra insurance that the custard would be fully set. And then the moment of truth…
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