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covered apple cake

a classic German apple cake my mother used to make, a perfect balance of a slightly sweet, buttery, biscuit like short crust and a soft, slightly tart apple filling

Course baking
Cuisine German
Keyword apple cake, covered apple cake, covered German apple cake, German apple cake
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
resting time 30 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 30 minutes
Servings 8 servings

Ingredients

short crust for a 9"-10" springform pan or a 1/4 sheet pan

  • 3 C 330 g white spelt flour you can use GF flour if needed or any pastry flour
  • 2 sticks 225 g very cold butter cut in small cubes
  • 1 extra-large egg or 2 small eggs
  • 1/2 C 110 g sugar or coconut sugar
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla powder or lemon zest from 1 organic lemon

filling

  • 7-8 or medium apples 6 C apples cubed
  • 2 Tbsp. lemon juice
  • 1/2 C 75 g dried unsweetened cranberries or raisins
  • 1/2 C apple sauce unsweetened
  • 1/3 C 50 g coconut sugar or brown sugar
  • 1 1/2 tsp Ceylon cinnamon powder I prefer the milder more subtle Ceylon cinnamon over the cassia or Vietnamese cinnamon
  • 1/4 C 50 g biscuit or graham cracker crumbs

egg wash

  • 1 medium egg
  • 1 Tbsp. heavy cream or Half+Half

glaze

  • 1 C powder sugar
  • 1 1/2 Tbsp. lemon juice

Instructions

  1. pre-heat the oven to 350 F / 175 C

short crust (can be made days in advance)

  1. in a food processor add the flour, sugar, salt and vanilla (or lemon zest) and puls a few times to mix well
    flour, sugar, slat and vanilla powder in the food processor
  2. add the cold butter cubes and pulse until it resembles coarse meal
    cubed butter to be mixed into the dry ingredients

  3. add the XL egg (or 2 small eggs) and mix but do not overwork! It should still look crumbly.

    1 whole egg and flour, sugar butter mix in the food processor

  4. take a few crumbs and check if they stick together. That's when it's ready.

    test short crust crumbs if they stick together

  5. pour the dough onto the kitchen surface and quickly push it together. Do not knead!

    short crust

  6. now divide the crust - 1/3-rd of the dough for the cover and 2/3-rd for the crust. Cover both discs with bee's wax wrap (to avoid plastic) and chill for minimum 30 minutes or overnight. 

  7. top layer: to make exactly the size of the cover flour a bee's wax wrap and roll the smaller disc almost to the baking pan's diameter. Now use the rim of the baking pan and push the dough with your fingers right to the edges. Take off the baking rim, cover the crust with a second bee's wax wrap and place it flat in the fridge until you need it.

  8. butter the baking pan bottom and sides

  9. to make the bottom and side crust use the rest 2/3rd short crust. Pull parts of the crust and with your hands push the dough onto the bottom to cover the bottom and about 1 1/4" (3 cm) up the rim and a thickness of about 1/4 ".

     Place the baking pan in the fridge while preparing the filling.

filling

  1. wash, peel, core and cut the apples to about 3/4" (1.5cm) cubes and cover them with the lemon juice

  2. in a medium bowl mix the apples with the dried cranberries, unsweetened apple sauce, brown sugar, and cinnamon

  3. take the baking pan with the crust from the fridge and cover the bottom of the crust with the biscuit/graham cracker or bread crumbs to soak up the excess juice from the apples 

  4. bounce the pan once or twice on the work surface to help the filling settle. The apples should be up to the rim of the crust

  5. now bring the cover crust from the fridge. Remove the top wax wrap. Now remove the other wax wrap and with your fingers gently push down the edges of the cover onto the edges of the crust sides

egg wash

  1. mix the egg with cream or Half+Half to make the egg-wash and brush onto the top layer. This adds a nice shine and adds browning. 

  2. bake the cake for ~60 minutes until the top and edges are golden brown. Take it out of the oven and let it cool for about 10 minutes. After those 10 minutes use a sharp knife to cut around the edges to loosen the cake from the rim to keep the edges intact.

glaze

  1. in a small bowl mix the lemon juice with the powder sugar to a homogeneous glaze while the cake is cooling. After you removed the rim, brush the glaze evenly onto the top and sides of the cake. Or, just dust some powder sugar onto the cake before serving

  2. you can enjoy the cake slightly warm as dessert or cooled with coffee or tea. It goes really well with (coconut) whipped cream or a scoop of vanilla ice-cream

Guten Appetit!