Friday, October 15, 2010

More apple cakes: Hollandse appeltaart aka Dutch Apple Tart

Dutch apple tart / Hollandi õunapirukas

Have you ever been to Amsterdam? If you have, then you surely remember this apple tart that was on offer everywhere - in pubs, in cafés. I definitely remember that, although I'm pretty sure it was called simply appeltaart and not Hollandse appeltaart there :) It's a delicious apple cake with a moist apple-raisin-cinnamon filling that's decorated with a criss-cross pattern of pastry strips. Pretty pretty, I'd say :)

Serve it with a generous dollop of whipped cream, or if you're feeling more glamorous, then some delicious home-made vanilla custard.

Dutch Apple Tart
(Hollandi õunapirukas)
Serves 8

Pastry:
300 g plain flour/all-purpose flour
200 g cold butter
125 g caster sugar
a pinch of salt
1 egg, lightly whisked

Filling:
3 to 4 large cooking apples (Antonovka, Granny Smith)
100 g caster sugar
30 g currants (dark seedless raisins)
30 g golden seedless raisins
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 Tbsp breadcrumbs

First, make the pastry. Whisk flour, salt and sugar in the bowl of your food processor, add cubed cold butter. Blitz until the mixture is moist and crumbly. Add most of the egg (leave some for brushing), blitz once again. Using your hands, press the pastry together into a flat disk. (Avoid overworking the pastry, as it'll become tough). Wrap into a clingfilm and put to the fridge to relax for about half an hour.

Make the filling. Peel and core the apples, cut into smaller chunks. Rinse and drain the raisins, add to the apple pieces alongside sugar and cinnamon.

Butter a 24 cm springform tin.

Roll 2/3 of the pastry into a about 30 cm circle, use this to line the base and sides of the cake tin. Sprinkle breadcrumbs onto the pastry base, top with apple and raisin mixture.

Roll out the rest of the pastry thinly (about 3 mm), then cut into 1.5 cm strips. Place the pastry strips across the filling, interlacing them. Brush the top with the leftover whisked egg.

Bake in the middle of a preheated 180 C/350 F oven for about 45-50 minutes, until the cake is golden brown.

Cool a little, then transfer onto a serving plate.

15 comments:

Meeta said...

umm - apple tart always makes me happy!

Meeli said...

Tegin ka ühel päeval. Väga hea maitse ning välimusega kook!

maxi said...

I remember it being called appelgeback and mine was covered with all sorts of nuts. The best apple pie I've ever eaten.

Gitte said...

Great looking apple tart and very nice lattice work.

slapshoe said...

I'm just having a piece of this cake now, still a tiny bit warm from the oven. YUM! I was nervous about how it would turn out because I totally forgot the layer of bread crumbs before putting in the fruit, and there was definite juice coming up through the lattices at the end--but in fact no sogginess resulted and the bottom crust turned out nicely. However, it did "sweat" quite a bit of butter around the bottom edge of the springform. Thanks for posting this!

ChichaJo said...

You are my go-to girl for apple cakes and tarts! Yes, I remember this from my stay in Amsterdam...yours looks delicious! :)

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Marsepein said...

So funny to see an Appeltaart on your blog! I am Dutch and can tell you there are so many variants of this pie. I like it with a filling of 'amandelspijs' which is a (dutch) coarse marzipan. I put it on the bottom of the pie and put the apple on top of it.

margie said...

This looks lovely - I love that you used a springform pan.

I'm curious, though; are you saying that currants can be replaced with raisins, or are currants (dried currants) and raisins (dried grapes) considered to be synonymous in Holland?

Either way, it sounds and looks lovely.

Pille said...

Meeta - me too :)

Meeli - tore kuulda!

Maxivida - love the sound of a nutty version!

Gitte - thank you ;)

Slapshoe - so pleased to hear that it turned out well (apart from the 'sweating' pastry!)

Joey - I'm blushing now...

Marsepein - I imagine there are loads of regional variations, and marzipan addition sounds great.

Margie - the currants I mean here are not dried redcurrants or black currants, but tiny seedless raisins grown (and dried) in the Meditteranean and California (also known as Zante currant, Zante raisin, dried Corinth grape).

dining tables said...

This is really lovely! I have always loved tarts and pies. Very delicious.

Marsepein said...

@Margie: We have both raisins and currants in Holland. For this pie you could use a mix of them. Personally I would use raisins.

Marsepein said...

Oh, and correct about the currants; they are the dried versions of a very small grape.

Pakistan Society of Nuclear Medicine - PSNM said...

nice sharing,keep it up.

Courtney said...

This looks amazing! I should make it for my mom, she loves apple tarts :)