I was very excited to be invited to my first ever Thanksgiving lunch, even though traditional Thanksgiving foods were eschewed. I thought I’d better contribute so I baked a peach küchen. What is a küchen? Küchen is German and also Yiddish for cake. Why would I bake a traditional Jewish cake for Thanksgiving, well why not? Or maybe because it’s quick easy and delicious.
And it was, yes those are little bits of mango as well.
I got this recipe from Judy Jackson’s The Jewish Cookbook. I’ve only used a couple of recipes from this book but they’ve been great.
This recipe is a one mix-bowl number – then you top with fruit and brown sugar. I used 2 large duck eggs, from my mate Emma. They were huge so I tinkered with quantities. This isn’t usually recommended but I’ve messed with this recipe before as the first time I made it seemed not to be as runny as the illustration so I added more milk, I also tend to reduce the sugar. Judy Jackson tells us to peel the peaches, but in this day and age I leave the skin on and it makes it more colourful. You could do this with any fruit you like, and this will make pretty muffins too.
Küchen
Beat till smooth:
¾ softened butter (unsalted)
2 eggs
3 cups SR flour
½ cup milk (I probably used 1 cup)
Pour into baking tin (20cmx20cm) lined with baking paper
Top with peach slices then sprinkle over ½ cup soft brown sugar mixed with ½ tsp ground cinnamon
Bake for 40 mins @ 180 °. Baking times are always dicey I find. Ovens have a mind (or at least a temperature of their own) so do the skewer test – I find it takes closer to an hour in my oven.
This cake really deserves whipped cream and so do you.