The recipes in the Real German Cuisine Challenge are from the German recipe book Die echte deutsche Küche and will be translated by me over the next couple of years.

Zwetschgenmichel (Plum casserole)

2 comments

Zwetschgenmichel

A luxurious casserole with cinnamon sauce

Ingredients for 6-8 portions:

For the Zwetschgenmichel:

  • 1 kg (2.2 lbs) ripe Zwetschgen (prune plums)
  • 1-2 T Zwetschgengeist (plum brandy)
  • 6 day-old Brötchen (large rolls)
  • 3/8 liter milk
  • 5 eggs
  • 1 pinch of salt
  • 150g (5.3 oz) sugar
  • 1 packet of vanilla sugar
  • 3 T butter
  • 1/2 untreated lemon (zested)
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 100g (3.5oz) chopped almonds
  • butter for the pan
  • powered sugar for sprinkling

For the cinnamon sauce:

  • 1/4 liter milk
  • 1/4 liter cream
  • 50g (1.75oz) sugar
  • 2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 pinch of salt
  • 3 egg yolks
  • 4-6 T Eierlikör (egg liqueur) (or more, if preferred)

Preparation time: about 1 1/2 hours

Per portion: 430 calories

Directions:

  1. Wash, half, and pitt the Zwetschgen.  Sprinkle with 2 T of Zwetschgengeist (plum brandy).  Cover and set aside.  Slice the Brötchen (large rolls), pour hot milk over the slices and allow to soak in.
  2. Separate the eggs and beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt to stiff peaks.  Beat the egg yolk with the sugar, vanilla sugar, 2 T softened butter, citrus zest, and cinnamon, until foamy. Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F).
  3. Lightly press the extra milk from the bread slices and mix into the egg yolk mixture.  Stir in the chopped almonds and lastly, gently fold in the stiff egg whites.
  4. Butter an oven-safe casserole pan or springform pan.  Pour the mixture in the pan and lay some butter pieces on top.  Bake 50 minutes in the middle of the oven, until golden yellow.
  5. While the Zwetschgenmichel is baking, prepare the cinnamon sauce.  Pour all of the milk except for 3 T (set aside 3T of milk), and the cream in a pot.  While stirring, add the sugar, cinnamon and pinch of salt.  Bring to a boil.  Stir the 3 T of milk with the egg yolks and add to the boiling milk mixture.  Whisk until the sauce thickens.  Let cool, then stir in the egg liqueur.
  6. Before serving, sprinkle the Zwetschgenmichel with powdered sugar.
  • Vanilla sauce also goes well with Zwetschgenmichel.  Outside of Zwetschgen season, you can substitute preserved fruit.  In this case, place the Zwetschgen in a sieve and allow to drain well.  Or you can substitute cherries and instead make “Kirschenmichel” (Cherry casserole).

Want to read more about this recipe? Find out how the challenge went. Want more Real German Cuisine? Check out the full recipe list organized by German state. Do you have an alternative recipe for this dish or helpful hints? Please let us know in the comments!

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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Sarah D. August 17, 2009 at 2:52 pm

Hi there,
I am loving these recipes and hoping you publish an English-language version of the book when you finish (be it 4 yours from now or not!), complete with your pictures…

I do have two questions on this one. How large is a packet of vanilla sugar? I am not familiar with it, and would probably substitute like you did, but not sure how much extra sugar to add. Also, for the Brötchen, what do you recommend as a US equivalent, in terms of amount of bread?

Thanks so much!

2 Christina Geyer August 18, 2009 at 12:44 am

@Sarah: That would be cool if I could get a book deal out of this, but everything will be free on the web here, so I’m not sure how that’ll work!

Vanilla sugar packets contain 1 tablespoon of sugar. I’m planning on making some vanilla sugar of my own, you just stick a split bean into a jar of sugar, but haven’t gotten around to it yet.

For the Brötchen, I weighed one and they are 50 grams each here (it was pretty consistent). I think I’d probably substitute Kaiser rolls in the US. They have about the right size and consistency. But use the plain ones, not the ones with sesame seeds or poppy seeds :)

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