When Yotam Ottolenghi was living in Amsterdam he would stop and have apple cake at Villa Zeezicht. Using this memory, and the ones of Verena’s gedeckter apfelkuchen and boterkoek, they created this Dutch apple cake recipe. It is so worth the effort and hopefully one day I will get to share this with Mark and Eva.
Head straight on to the Recipe For ♥ Dutch Apple Cake ♥
Why did I make a Dutch apple cake?
In January, Eva made plans with me for their trip to South Africa. They had two weekends in the country and the second one was to be spent with us. As we would have two full days, and three nights, I planned a lot of things to do and make. One of them was my no knead sourdough bread. And the other was this Dutch apple cake. I thought that over the course of a weekend we would finish the cake between the four of us. And Eva could be a good judge of how authentic it was. But, things did not go to plan, and both weekends were taken up with them doing other things. I decided to make the cake regardless as no-one at my office would say no to a slice.
Let them eat cake!
When someone gossips to me about a third party, I can be rest assured they are telling the other person things about me. One particular person took great delight in telling me stories about her mother-in-law. I am not sure to what end. Sometimes I think the words were meant to hurt me, and other times, they were to make the storyteller be the hero. But, from the very first time she shared a secret, I learnt to keep my mouth shut. As I have an excellent memory, I listened to the stories change over time. This was a manipulation with an end result I could not see coming. Because, despite me never sharing anything personal, she still managed to turn the narrative against me. I think it was a cover up for one too many secrets spilled, in case I finally opened my mouth.
Take a look at this inspiring recipe for ♥ Dutch Apple Cake ♥ from Lavender and Lime #LavenderAndLime Share on X
Click on the links for conversions and notes.
Dutch Apple Cake
Ingredients
for the pastry:
- 280 g soft butter
- 255 g fructose
- 75 g coconut sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
- 1.25 mls vanilla powder
- 1 lemon, zest only (save the lemon for the filling)
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 egg
- 5 mls water
- 310 g flour, plus extra for dusting
- 65 g almond flour
- 7.5 mls baking powder
for the filling:
- 545 g Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and cut into small chunks
- 315 g Royal Gala apples, peeled, cored and cut into small chunks
- 50 mls Bourbon
- 50 g raisins
- 40 g pistachios, lightly toasted and roughly chopped
- 40 g coconut sugar
- 30 g butter, melted
- 25 g malt syrup
- 20 g panko bread crumbs
- 15 mls lemon juice
- 3.75 mls ground cinnamon
- 2.5 mls groung nutmeg
Method
for the pastry:
- Place the butter into a stand mixer bowl and add the fructose, sugar, vanilla and zest, and beat until light and creamy
- Place the egg yolks and egg into a mixing bowl and whisk to combine
- Scoop out 5mls of the mixture and place into a small bowl
- Add the water and whisk, then cover with cling film and place into the fridge until needed
- Pour the rest of the eggs into the stand mixer bowl and beat until just combined
- With the mixer on the lowest speed, add the flour in thirds until a dough forms
- Add the almond flour abd baking paper and mix until a dough forms
- Tip the dough out onto a sheet of baking paper that is on a rectangle baking tray, cover with another sheet of baking paper and press flat into a rectangular shape
- Place the pastry into the fridge for at least 90 minutes
- Butter the base and sides of a 23cm springform tin and line the base with baking paper
- Divide the pastry into three equal pieces and keep one piece aside to work on and place the other two pieces back in the fridge
- Dust your work surface and rolling pin with flour and roll out the pastry into a circle, 22cm wide, and 5mm thick
- Line the bottom of the tin, pushing the pastry into the edges
- Place the tin into the fridge and remove the second piece of dough
- Roll this piece out to 14cm x 29cm, and 5mm thick
- Cut the dough down the middle, lengthwise and line the sides of the tin, making sure it is pressed into the tin, and joins the dough lining the base
- Place the tin into the fridge and remove the third piece of dough
- Roll out the pastry into a circle, 22cm wide, and 5mm thick, place back onto the tray and place into the fridge
for the filling:
- Place the apples, Bourbon, raisins, pistachios, sugar, butter, syrup, bread crumbs, lemon juice, cinnamon and nutmeg into a large mixing bowl
- Mix until well combined then remove the cake tin from the fridge and spoon the filling into the tin
- Remove the pastry circle from the fridge and place it on top of the filling
- Pinch the top piece of pastry together with the side piece then brush with the egg wash
- Sprinkle with some coconut sugar * then place the tin back into the fridge
- Place the lined rectangle baking tray into the oven and preheat the oven to 190° Celsius
- Place the cake tin onto the baking tray and bake for 1 hour
- Remove the cake from the oven and place the tin onto a wire rack to cool the cake, for at least two hours
- Run a knife between the cake and the side of the tin before releasing the spring lock
- Place onto a serving plate and cut nice thick wedges
Notes
See the links below for blog posts I published on October 21:
- 2022: Welsh Cakes
- 2020: Chocolate Sorbet
- 2019: Blueberry Sorbet
- 2016: Baked Pap With Pork Mince
- 2015: !Khwa Ttu
- 2013: Strawberrylicious Cup Cakes
- 2012: Winners Announced For 3 Competitions
- 2011: Chicken Cashew Curry
- 2010: Roasted Red Pepper Bread Rolls
Nice recipe!
Thanks!
I love that you served it with a scoop of ice cream! So double desserts 🙂 win-win!
totally! You can never have enough dessert 😉
Well this is a game-changer! I’m honestly not the biggest fan of pie crust, but put all that luscious apple filling inside of a cake, and I’m immediately interested. I have to try this with other fillings, too.
Let me know how it works out 🙂
this sounds nicely spicy Tandy. Cinnamon and nutmeg go so well with apples.
sherry
Thank you so much!
Tandy – I am drooling reading through the ingredients that make this cake. What a tasty and aromatic cake! I want to make this but don’t trust myself to not eat it all! Also – couldn’t agree more on your take on gossipers, in my exp they are usually spreading stuff around about everyone and thrive on drama!
For sure, it is all about the drama!
This looks wonderful, Tandy! I love a good apple cake, and this one sounds perfectly cozy and fragrant.
This looks wonderful, Tandy! I love a good apple cake, and this one sounds perfectly cozy and fragrant
I hope you make it when apples are in season 🙂
Hi Tandy, I like the sound of this dessert. I am sorry about the relationship failure. Some relationships just don’t work out.
And some are not worth the effort of fixing either!
Tandy I love the amount of pastry in this cake, I think we would call it a pie. Apple pie is such a classic here. Great recipe, thanks.
I love how one thing can be called so many different names 🙂