Žemľovka

The story

Žemľovka is a Slovak bake of day-old rolls soaked in sweetened milk and layered with apples, and Wikipedia's overview of Slovak cuisine lists it simply as bread pudding. The Slovak news agency SITA calls it a former food of the poor, made above all to use up older rolls and eaten as a sweet lunch or supper, warm or cold. Lubos of the English-language site Slovak Cooking makes it with rožky, the long Slovak rolls. He calls it a bread pie and says it is the closest thing Slovakia has to American apple pie, eaten not only as dessert but as the main course, typically after a sour soup. The method is thrifty. Slices of stale roll are dipped in milk beaten with egg yolks and sugar, laid in a buttered pan, covered with grated apples, cinnamon and raisins, and topped with more soaked bread and flakes of butter. His recipe adds a layer of sweetened farmer's cheese and finishes the bake with the leftover egg whites, whipped with sugar into a meringue cap. In an American kitchen, kaiser rolls a day or two old work well, and firm, tart apples keep their shape. Serve it warm after a bowl of soup for a simple winter supper.