Kuchen de manzana — southern Chile's German apple tart with cinnamon crumble
Southern Chilean apple kuchen in 1 hour 20 minutes: buttery shortcrust base, sliced apples with cinnamon and lemon, and a crisp streusel on top. Which apples to use, how to avoid a soggy base and how it keeps.
Ingredients
Instructions
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Make the shortcrust
Mix the flour, sugar and salt. Add the cold butter and rub it in with your fingertips until you have coarse sand with lentil-sized bits of butter. Add the egg and bring the dough together by pressing with your hand, without kneading, into a ball. Flatten into a disc, wrap in film and chill for 20 minutes. Cold butter and minimal handling are what keep it short and crumbly.
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Line the tin and blind-bake the base
Preheat the oven to 180 °C. Roll the cold dough between two sheets of baking paper into a 30 cm disc and line a buttered 24 cm springform tin, bringing the pastry 3 cm up the sides. Prick the base with a fork and bake for 10 minutes without filling: this seals the base so it does not soak up the apple juices. Take it out and keep it to hand.
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Prepare the apples
Peel and core the apples and slice them 3-4 mm thick. Toss them in a bowl with the sugar, cinnamon, lemon juice and cornflour until coated. The cornflour thickens the juice they release in the oven and stops the kuchen turning watery; the lemon keeps the colour and balances the sweetness.
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Make the streusel
In a small bowl, rub the flour, sugar, cinnamon and cold butter together with your fingers until irregular, chickpea-sized clumps form. Do not overwork: if the butter warms up, the crumbs turn into paste and melt in the oven instead of staying crisp. Chill while you assemble the kuchen.
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Assemble and bake
Arrange the apples over the blind-baked base in tight layers, pressing so there are no gaps, and cover the whole surface with the streusel. Bake for 40-45 minutes at 180 °C on the middle shelf, until the crumbs are golden and the juice bubbles at the edges. If the streusel browns too early, cover with foil for the last 10 minutes.
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Cool before slicing
Let the kuchen cool in the tin for at least 1 hour before unmoulding and slicing: straight from the oven the apple juice is liquid and the slices collapse. Warm or at room temperature is how it is served in the south, with whipped cream or on its own, for once (afternoon tea).
Foodtastico Tip
The pastry and the streusel can be made up to 2 days ahead and kept in the fridge (the pastry as a wrapped disc, the crumbs in a covered bowl). On the day you only slice the apples, assemble and bake: 55 minutes, almost all of it oven time.
Nutrition information
| Calories | 420 kcal |
|---|---|
| Protein | 5 g |
| Carbs | 58 g |
| Sugars | 32 g |
| Fat | 19 g |
| Trans fat | 0 g |
Values per serving (1 of 4).
Frequently asked questions
Which apples do I use for kuchen?
A tart, firm apple that does not collapse when baked: Granny Smith is the best, followed by Fuji, Pink Lady or a reinette. Sweet, mealy red apples (Red Delicious) turn to purée and release a lot of water. If sweet apples are all you have, raise the lemon to 2 tablespoons and lower the filling sugar to 40 g.
Why does the base of my kuchen come out raw or soggy?
Because the apple juice lands on raw pastry and soaks it before it can cook. Two defences: blind-bake the base for 10 minutes without filling (this recipe does) and toss the apples in cornflour so the juice thickens. Baking on the middle or lower shelf, never the top, also helps the base get heat. A metal tin cooks the base better than glass or ceramic.
What is the difference between kuchen and apple tart?
Kuchen is the version brought by the German immigrants of Valdivia, Osorno, Puerto Varas and Frutillar: a low shortcrust base, fruit in a thick layer and, almost always, butter crumbs (streusel) on top, with no pastry lid. French apple tart shows the slices glazed with jam, and American apple pie is closed with pastry. There are kuchens of other southern fruits (raspberry, blackberry, rhubarb, murta) with the same base and the same crumbs.
Can I make the streusel without cinnamon, or with oats?
Yes to both. Without cinnamon you get a neutral streusel that lets the apple speak; with oats (replace 40 g of the flour with rolled oats) the crumbs turn more rustic and crunchy, crumble-style. Chopped walnuts or almonds can go in too. What does not change is flour, sugar and butter in a ratio close to 3:2:2 by weight.
How long does it keep, and can I freeze it?
Covered at room temperature it keeps 2 days; in the fridge, 4 (the crumbs soften a little; 10 minutes in a 160 °C oven brings them back). It freezes well baked and cooled, whole or in film-wrapped slices, for up to 2 months; thaw in the fridge and warm in a low oven. It can also be frozen assembled and raw and baked from frozen, adding 10 minutes.
Can I make it in a rectangular or larger tin?
Yes. These quantities cover a 24 cm round tin or a 20 × 28 cm rectangular one. For a 30 × 40 cm baking tray (the southern format for a crowd), double the pastry and the streusel and use 1.8 kg of apples; the baking time rises to 50 minutes. In a big tray the kuchen is cut into squares, as in the bakeries of Frutillar.
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