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Apple Charlotte, also called Poor Man's Dish

4 servings

Ingredients

• 1 kg cooking apples (tender)
• sugar (to taste)
• cinnamon (whole) (a little)
• lemon zest (a little)
• raisins (small) (a little)
• 2 cup rye bread (baked, fresh, grated)
• caster sugar (a little)
• 10 pieces almonds (finely chopped)
• butter (melted, for drizzling) (a little)

Instructions

1. Stew the peeled, cored, and sliced cooking apples until soft with sugar, a little whole cinnamon, lemon zest, and small raisins.
2. Meanwhile, grate well-baked, still quite fresh rye bread, mix with caster sugar until sticky, and fold in finely chopped almonds.
3. Line the bottom and sides of a shallow pan or dessert dish, well greased with butter, with the bread, place the stewed apples on top, and cover again with bread, drizzling the top with melted butter.
4. Bake the dish for one hour.
5. Alternatively, you can bake it on a gentle stovetop in a pancake pan; once one side is browned, cover with a porcelain plate, flip, add fresh butter to the pan, and bake the other side, also covered.

Modernized from a treasured 19th-century German cookbook.