Kirschmichel

Kirschmichel belongs to the south-west, strongest in the Pfalz, Baden, Hesse, and into Franconia, where a sweet baked main dish can sit at lunch without apology. It is summer food when the sour cherries are in, and larder food when a jar of home-preserved cherries comes off the shelf in winter. Weggeworfen wird nichts. Yesterday's rolls are not waste. They are the dish.

Every region nudges it. In Swabia the apple cousin is Ofenschlupfer, layered and tidy. In the Pfalz and Hesse, Kirschmichel is looser, richer, and more cherry-forward, often served with vanilla sauce. Some cooks beat the egg whites separately for lift; others bake it dense and spoonable. I beat them, because a sweet main dish should not land like a brick.

The step that decides it is the soak. Tear the stale rolls and let the warm vanilla milk go all the way through before the eggs and cherries are folded in. Dry bread steals liquid in the oven, so the pudding bakes patchy, wet in one place and tough in another. Give the bread its time in the bowl, and the oven only has to set the custard.

Use sour cherries, not syrupy sweet ones. The fruit has to cut the milk, egg, and butter, or the whole thing turns flat. Das braucht seine Zeit, but not much drama. A spoonful of vanilla sauce beside it, and the table is quiet for the right reason.