Kuchen Chileno de Arándanos

Chilean blueberry kuchen with a vanilla custard filling and crumble topping, from the German settler bakeries of the Lake District

Origin: Los Lagos and La Araucanía, Chilean Lake District

From the journey of Blueberry.

Kuchen (from the German word for cake) arrived in southern Chile with the wave of German immigrant settlers who established communities in the Lake District of La Araucanía and Los Lagos from the 1850s onwards. The Chilean government actively recruited German colonists to settle the fertile but remote southern territories, and the settlers brought with them the baking traditions of Bavaria, Württemberg, and Silesia, including the fruit kuchen: a yeasted or short-pastry base topped with seasonal fruit set in a vanilla custard, and sometimes finished with a streusel crumble. The Chilean Lake District produces blueberries of exceptional quality in the volcanic soils around Osorno, Villarrica, and Puerto Montt, and the arándano (highbush blueberry) became integrated into the local kuchen tradition almost immediately once commercial cultivation expanded in the region from the 1990s. Chilean blueberry kuchen is today one of the signature products of the fürdung or afternoon coffee culture that German-Chilean communities have maintained across more than 150 years. In the cafés and bakeries of Puerto Varas, Frutillar, and Puerto Octay, kuchen de arándanos is served year-round alongside kaffee and a landscape of volcanic lakes that is, in a particular light, not unlike Bavaria. The recipe below follows the Chilean style: a short-pastry base (not yeasted), a vanilla custard filling set in the oven, and a crumble topping over the blueberries.

Ingredients

Pastry

  • 250 g plain flour
  • 2 tbsp caster sugar
  • 0.5 tsp fine sea salt
  • 130 g cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
  • 1 large egg yolk
  • 2 tbsp cold water, as needed

Filling

  • 400 g fresh blueberries

Custard

  • 2 large eggs
  • 150 g caster sugar
  • 200 ml soured cream or crème fraîche
  • 100 ml double cream
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

Streusel

  • 60 g plain flour
  • 50 g caster sugar
  • 50 g cold butter, cubed

Method

  1. Make the pastry: combine the flour, sugar, and salt. Rub in the cold butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the egg yolk and enough cold water to bring the dough together. Press into a disc, wrap, and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
  2. Preheat the oven to 180°C (fan 160°C). Press the pastry evenly into the base and sides of a 24 cm loose-bottomed tart or springform tin to a thickness of about 4 mm. Refrigerate for 10 minutes, then blind-bake for 15 minutes with baking beans, or prick the base and bake without.
  3. Whisk together the eggs, sugar, soured cream, double cream, and vanilla to make the custard filling. Pour over the par-baked base. Scatter the blueberries evenly over the custard.
  4. Make the streusel: rub together the flour, sugar, and cold butter until it forms clumping crumbs. Scatter evenly over the blueberry-topped custard.
  5. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes until the custard is set (it should have only a gentle wobble in the very centre when the tin is shaken) and the streusel is golden. Cool in the tin completely before unmoulding.
  6. Serve at cool room temperature, in generous wedges, alongside a cup of strong coffee. The kuchen keeps refrigerated for up to 3 days; bring to room temperature for 20 minutes before serving.
The Gastrographer

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