Kirschmichel

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •2 litre baking dish
• •Large mixing bowl
• •Electric whisk or balloon whisk
• •Cherry pitter if using fresh cherries

Instructions

1. 1

   Soak the rolls

   Warm the milk with 40g of the butter, half the sugar, the vanilla, and the lemon zest until the butter melts, then pour it over the torn stale rolls in a wide bowl. Let them stand 15 minutes, turning once or twice, because dry bread needs time to drink evenly; rush this and it steals liquid in the oven and bakes tough at the edges.

   Use stale Brötchen, white rolls, not fresh soft bread. Fresh bread collapses to paste in milk, while stale bread swells and still keeps enough structure to make a proper pudding.
2. 2

   Prepare the dish

   Heat the oven to 180C and butter a 2 litre baking dish, then coat it with the dry breadcrumbs. The crumbs give the custard something dry to grip, so the edges brown cleanly and the first spoonful comes out instead of smearing.

3. 3

   Mix the custard

   Beat the egg yolks with the remaining sugar until pale, then work them into the softened bread with a pinch of salt. Do this after the milk has cooled from hot to warm, because hot milk tightens the yolks and gives you sweet scrambled egg. Stir in the cherries gently, keeping some whole pockets of fruit.

4. 4

   Fold the whites

   Beat the egg whites until they hold soft peaks, then fold them through the bread mixture in two additions. The first spoon loosens the heavy bread, the second keeps the air, and that air is what stops Kirschmichel from eating like a wet brick.

5. 5

   Bake it golden

   Spoon the mixture into the prepared dish, dot the top with the remaining butter, and scatter over the almonds if you're using them. Bake 40 to 45 minutes, until the top is deep gold, the edges are set, and the centre gives a slow wobble instead of sloshing. Let it stand 10 minutes before serving, because custard finishes setting off the heat.

6. 6

   Serve with sauce

   Dust lightly with icing sugar if you like and serve warm with vanilla sauce. Not a packet sauce. Milk, egg yolk, sugar, vanilla, low heat. Nicht aus dem Glas. The sauce is there to soften the spoonful, not drown it.

Chef Tips

• •Sour cherries matter. Sweet cherries make the dish taste round and sleepy; sour cherries keep it awake against the milk, egg, and butter.
• •If you use preserved cherries, drain them well and save the juice. Reduce it with a spoon of sugar for a quick cherry spoon sauce, because Weggeworfen wird nichts.
• •Beat the whites only to soft peaks. Stiff whites break into dry lumps in the bread mixture, and then you lose the lift you bothered to make.
• •Serve it as a sweet main dish after a clear soup, the old way, or as a Sunday coffee bake. Both are proper. Im Norden anders, im Süden anders.

Advance Preparation

• •Tear the rolls the night before and leave them uncovered so they stale properly; bread with a dry surface drinks the custard better.
• •Pit the cherries up to one day ahead and keep them covered in the refrigerator. Drain before folding them in, or the custard loosens too much.
• •Bake Kirschmichel just before serving if you want the top crisp. Leftovers reheat well at 160C for 15 minutes, covered loosely so the custard warms without drying out.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 345g)