Chef Klaus
Apfelküchle
The Baden-Wuerttemberg apple fritter that lives between weeknight dessert and Sunday coffee, built on tart rings, a light batter, and oil kept steady.
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Ofenschlupfer
Created by
The Swabian bread bake that rescues yesterday's rolls, layers them with apple, raisins, and almonds, then lets a patient custard turn scraps into supper.
Main Dishes
German
Comfort Food
Make Ahead
25 min
Active Time
45 min cook•1 hr 10 min total
Yield6 servings
Ofenschlupfer belongs to Swabia, and it belongs to the thrift table. Stale Wecken, the white rolls left from yesterday, don't go in the bin. They go into a buttered dish with apples, raisins, almonds, and a vanilla milk custard. Weggeworfen wird nichts.
In Swabia this can be a sweet main dish after soup, the kind of meal that makes sense on a weeknight and still sits well on a Sunday table. Further south and east, Bavaria and Austria argue for Scheiterhaufen, often taller and sometimes finished with beaten egg white; in the Palatinate, Kirschenmichel takes the same stale-bread logic and gives it cherries. Im Norden anders, im Süden anders. This one stays Swabian: apple, old rolls, custard, no theatre.
The technique is the soak. The bread has to drink the custard before the dish goes into the oven, because dry slices will bake into tough islands while wet slices set into one tender body. Press the layers down, wait ten minutes, and only then bake. Das braucht seine Zeit, not much, but enough.
Watch the top. You want gold at the edges, puffed custard in the middle, and apples soft but still there. Too hot and the top scorches before the custard sets. Runter mit der Temperatur if it browns too fast. Schön ist, was schmeckt.
Ofenschlupfer sits in the Swabian and Württemberg tradition of sweet main dishes, where a vegetable soup followed by a flour, potato, or bread-based Süßspeise was a normal household meal, especially in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The dish belongs to the same economy as Arme Ritter and Semmelknödel: stale white bread was a stored ingredient, not waste, and milk, eggs, orchard apples, and dried fruit turned it into a filling bake. Regional relatives mark the map clearly, with Austrian and Bavarian Scheiterhaufen and the Palatine Kirschenmichel showing how one thrift method changes with the local fruit bowl.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
stale white rolls (Wecken or Semmeln)
Quantity
6, about 300g
sliced 1cm thick
whole milk
Quantity
500ml
large eggs
Quantity
3
sugar
Quantity
60g
vanilla sugar or vanilla extract
Quantity
1 teaspoon
salt
Quantity
1 pinch
tart apples
Quantity
700g
peeled, cored, and thinly sliced
raisins
Quantity
60g
apple juice or rum
Quantity
3 tablespoons
for soaking the raisins
sliced almonds
Quantity
60g
ground cinnamon
Quantity
1 teaspoon
butter
Quantity
40g, plus more for the dish
fine breadcrumbs
Quantity
2 tablespoons
for the dish
icing sugar (optional)
Quantity
to dust
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| stale white rolls (Wecken or Semmeln)sliced 1cm thick | 6, about 300g |
| whole milk | 500ml |
| large eggs | 3 |
| sugar | 60g |
| vanilla sugar or vanilla extract | 1 teaspoon |
| salt | 1 pinch |
| tart applespeeled, cored, and thinly sliced | 700g |
| raisins | 60g |
| apple juice or rumfor soaking the raisins | 3 tablespoons |
| sliced almonds | 60g |
| ground cinnamon | 1 teaspoon |
| butter | 40g, plus more for the dish |
| fine breadcrumbsfor the dish | 2 tablespoons |
| icing sugar (optional) | to dust |
Equipment Needed
- •2 litre baking dish
- •Mixing bowl
- •Whisk
- •Bread knife
Instructions
- 1
Soak the raisins
Put the raisins in the apple juice or rum for 15 minutes while you slice the bread and apples. Dry raisins pull moisture out of the bake; soaked raisins give it back and stay soft under the teeth.
- 2
Prepare the dish
Butter a 2 litre baking dish and dust it with the fine breadcrumbs. The butter gives the edges colour, and the crumbs make a thin dry coat so the custard sets cleanly instead of welding itself to the dish.
- 3
Mix the custard
Whisk the milk, eggs, sugar, vanilla, and salt until the eggs are fully broken into the milk. Don't leave streaks of egg white; they set into rubbery patches, while a smooth custard soaks the rolls evenly.
- 4
Layer the bake
Lay a third of the bread in the dish, then cover it with half the apples, half the raisins, a little cinnamon, and a scattering of almonds. Repeat, then finish with the last bread slices and the remaining almonds. Keep the top mostly bread, because bread browns and crisps better than apple.
Use stale rolls, not fresh soft ones. Fresh bread collapses into paste when the custard hits it; stale bread has enough structure to drink the milk and still hold a layer. - 5
Soak before baking
Pour the custard slowly over the layers, then press the bread down with clean hands or a spatula and leave it for 10 minutes. This pause decides the dish: the bread must drink before it bakes, or the top turns dry while the bottom swims.
- 6
Bake until set
Dot the top with the butter and bake at 180C for 40 to 45 minutes, until the top is golden, the almonds are toasted, and the middle gives a soft set when you press it. If the top colours too quickly, cover it loosely with foil and turn the heat down a little. Runter mit der Temperatur.
- 7
Rest and serve
Let the Ofenschlupfer stand 10 minutes before spooning it out. Straight from the oven the custard is still loose; a short rest lets it settle so you get soft layers instead of sweet collapse. Dust with icing sugar if you like, and serve warm, plain or with vanilla sauce.
Chef Tips
- •Use tart apples such as Boskoop, Elstar, or Braeburn. A sweet eating apple disappears into sugar; a tart one keeps the dish bright enough to eat as a main after soup.
- •Stale rolls are the point. If yours are only a day old and still soft, slice them and leave them uncovered for an hour, or dry them briefly in a low oven before layering.
- •Vanilla sauce is good beside it, but not from a packet. Milk, egg yolk, sugar, vanilla, low heat. Nicht aus dem Glas, and not from the sachet either.
- •Leftovers reheat well covered at 160C until the centre is warm. A splash of milk around the edge keeps the bread from drying out.
Advance Preparation
- •Slice the rolls and apples up to 2 hours ahead; keep the apples covered with a little lemon water or apple juice so they don't brown.
- •The whole dish can be assembled 2 hours ahead and kept covered in the refrigerator. Bake it straight from cold, adding 5 to 10 minutes, because the custard needs time to warm through and set.
- •Best served warm the day it is baked, but leftovers keep covered in the refrigerator for 2 days.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 285g)
Calories
405 calories
Total Fat
15 g
Saturated Fat
6 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
8 g
Cholesterol
120 mg
Sodium
320 mg
Total Carbohydrates
59 g
Dietary Fiber
5 g
Sugars
34 g
Protein
12 g
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