Large Batch German Kuchen Recipe
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I’ve been wanting to make a better version of kuchen for a long time instead of the original recipe for Peach Kuchen that I posted here on my site a long time ago. While it’s good, it wasn’t exactly like my Granny used to make and I really wanted to replicate that better.
While researching, I learned that making kuchen can vary to an extreme level based on how your family, their region, and their specific culture in the US made it. It was way more of a rabbit trail than I knew I was going to go down!
But what I’ve come up with is very close to my Granny’s recipe, which I knew used a sweet yeast dough and a decent amount of sweet custard filling on top of fruit. I also was able to recreate my Great-Grandma’s Peanut Butter kuchen but that will be a recipe for another day!
This makes a large batch…8 kuchens, at one time. It was common to make many at once and freeze what you didn’t need right away. You should be able to halve or quarter this recipe as needed, but I don’t know…you really can never have too many kuchens!
Large Batch Authentic German Kuchen Recipe
My Granny was from southeastern South Dakota, and this is very close to the kuchen recipe she made as a German from Russia.
Ingredients
Sweet Yeast Dough
- 5 teaspoons yeast
- 2/3 cup warm water
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 cup solid shortening I used palm shortening
- 1 cup sugar
- 4 eggs
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 3 cups milk
- 11-13 cups flour
Custard Filling
- 6 eggs
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 6 tablespoons flour
- 3 1/2 cups heavy cream
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- sliced fruit for filling can use use pie filling too
Instructions
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Combine the yeast, water, and small amount of sugar in a bowl and let it sit for a few minutes.
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Scald the milk (bring to 180 degrees), Set aside to cool.
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Mix the eggs, sugar, shortening, and salt with a hand mixer.
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Add in the milk (when cooled to room temp) and the yeast mixture to the egg mixture. Combine well.
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Add in the flour slowly. You want the dough to be somewhat soft and a little sticky but so you can still handle it. You may need more or less flour. I needed about 12-13 cups at my altitude.
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Knead the dough for a little bit, but not too long. You do not want a firm, stiff dough. Place the dough in a covered, warm place and let it rise for about 1-2 hours or until doubled.
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When the dough is done rising, start the filling. Combine all the custard ingredients except for the vanilla on a saucepan on the stove. Whisk over a medium/low heat until it gets nice and thick. You will need to constantly whisk or it may burn.
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Divide the dough into 8 portions. Using some kind of straight-sided pan is the best but you can use pie plates if you cannot find those.
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Roll out of the dough like a pizza and place into each of the greased pans. Pinch it up the sides of the pan. You may have to do this over a series of several minutes as the dough will want to roll back down so give it time to stretch out. The sides will not be perfect like a pie. See my pictures for reference!
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Place sliced fruit at the bottom of the dough.
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Pour the filling over the top. Divide it evenly among all of your kuchens.
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You can sprinkle with cinnamon or make a riwwel (crumble) topping if you like or just leave it as is.
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Bake in a 350 degree oven for 25-30 minutes or until the custard is mostly set and the crust is golden brown.
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When you remove the kuchen, brush melted butter on the crust to keep it soft.
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Kuchens are best when refrigerated or frozen so that the custard stays set up. It can melt under warm temps. We prefer to put ours in the fridge for a while to finish setting up before serving.
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Kuchen freezes extremely well so you can cover your cooled kuchens and freeze to pull out later!
Recipe Notes
You can experiment with different kinds of fruit. Rhubarb, peach, blueberry, and raspberry are our favorites.
Having straight sided pans will get you the best results. I am lucky enough to have some of my Granny’s old kuchen pans but something like this pan would work really well.
Kuchen isn’t a super easy or quick process, but the results are so worth it! I know this is a little more complex than many of my recipes, but sometimes the tried-and-true ones are best. I will have a video up on how to make these soon.
Merissa Alink
Merissa has been blogging about and living the simple and frugal life on Little House Living since 2009 and has internationally published 2 books on the topic. You can read about Merissa’s journey from penniless to freedom on the About Page. You can send her a message any time from the Contact Page.
This recipe for large batch German Kuchens was originally posted on Little House Living in August 2026.