(Adapted from “Jewish Holiday Cooking,” by Jayne Cohen)

Ingredients:

Kugel:

8 ounces medium flat egg noodles

½ stick unsalted butter, melted, plus more

for greasing pan

½ cup currants

3 large eggs

1/3 cup maple syrup

1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 cups well-shaken buttermilk

Topping:

¼ cup brown sugar

¼ cup all-purpose flour

2 tbsp. chopped pecans

½ tsp. ground cinnamon

¼ tsp. ground cloves

Pinch of salt

4 tbsp. cold unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces

5 granny smith apples, peeled, cored, and

each cut into 10-12 thin wedges

1 tbsp. granulated sugar

1 tsp. grated lemon zest (from 1 small lemon)

2 tsp. fresh squeezed lemon juice

 

Directions

Oil or butter a 13×9” baking dish.  Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

In a large pot, add noodles to boiling salted water. Cook according to directions. Drain pasta and immediately return noodles to pot. Stir in melted butter and currants.

In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, maple syrup, vanilla extract, and buttermilk. Add mixture to noodles in pot and stir to incorporate.

Spoon mixture into prepared dish and bake kugel for 50 minutes.  Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool. Cover with foil paper and refrigerate overnight.

While kugel bakes, make topping: 

Combine brown sugar, flour, pecans, cinnamon, cloves, and salt in a medium bowl. Scatter butter over mixture and, with a fork or pastry blender, or your fingertips, press butter into ingredients until crumbly. Cover bowl and refrigerate overnight.

In another bowl, combine apples, sugar, lemon zest, and lemon juice. Cover bowl and refrigerate overnight.

The next day, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Remove kugel, apples, and brown sugar topping from refrigerator.

Uncover kugel and arrange apples in rows on kugel. Crumble brown sugar topping over apples and place kugel into oven. Bake kugel for 30-40 minutes, or until topping is bubbling. Transfer kugel to a cooling rack and let cool for at least 15 minutes before serving.

Makes 8-10 servings.