Spring has arrived in the Pacific Northwest ☀️ – birds are chirping, frogs are croaking and trees and flowers starting to bloom. It’s time to use the last fall crops stored for winter so we can enjoy some fresh local harvest soon. In a previous blog, I used fall apples to make some delish applesauce. Today I’ll use the remaining apples we have on hand to make a German style Apple Pie. Pie is always a good idea, nothing better to eat a piece of pie and drink a good cup of coffee on a beautiful Sunday afternoon.
Fun fact: a tradition in Germany is to have coffee and cake, or in German – Kaffee und Kuchen, in the afternoon around 3:00 pm. It’s a meal between lunch and dinner, and is really an excuse to get together to enjoy some treats, gossip, catch up or spend a leisurely afternoon with friends and family 💖.
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter – room temperature
- I like to use Kerrygold Pure Irish Butter, it has the best taste
- 3 medium eggs
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 3/4 cups flour
- 1 tablespoon vanilla sugar
- Here is a link on how to make Homemade Vanilla Sugar (Vanillezucker)
- 1 tablespoon milk
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 4 sweet apples
- 1/4 cup powdered sugar
Cake pan: 10″ (26cm) Springform pan
Prep time: 30 min.
Baking time: 40 min.
Temperature on convection setting: 360 F
Let’s get baking 🍰!
Preheat the oven, so you can put the pie right into the preheated oven, when all steps have been completed.
First, we want to mix butter, eggs and sugar for about 15 min. to break down the butter and make it a somewhat smooth batter.
While these three ingredients get mixed, we’ll get the apples prepared. Peel the apples and split them in half. Then we’ll take the seeds out and remove any remaining part of the apple that is uneatable.
Now comes a very important step to make this apple pie just right: slicing the outside of each apple half. Take a small knife and go over the entire apple, front to back, about halfway through the apple. Don’t go too deep, otherwise the apple will break apart. Try and keep the spaces between each slice the same for two reasons:
1. It will ensure the apples are soft by the time the pie is baked
2. It looks super pretty 😊
Set the apples aside until the batter is ready.
Now we add flour, suggesting you add flour in increments – 1/2 cups at the time, so the flour can be mixed into batter evenly. Then we add milk and vanilla sugar. Mix these ingredients for about 3-4 min. until batter has a smooth texture. Lastly, we’ll add the baking powder. Mix quickly until baking power is fully mixed into batter and you’re done 🤩.
If your batter is too runny, add some more flour.
If you feel you batter is too thick, add some milk.
Let’s get the Springform pan ready: to ensure the pie doesn’t stick to the pan, after it’s done baking, it’s important to prepare the pan right:
1. Brush pan with butter
2. Dust flour over butter
3. Remove excess flour from pan by turning the pan over and tapping on bottom of pan. Do it over your sink to avoid a messy counter top 😉.
Now it’s time to put the batter into the cake pan. Ensure you smoothen out the batter so you haven an even surface. Then we add the apples. Just lay the apples on the batter, do not (!) push the apples into the batter. The batter will raise during baking. Lay the apples as close as possible next to each other. Depending on the size of your apple halves, you might need to cut the last one to make it fit.
Put the pie in the oven as soon as you’re done to get it baking.
WOW – doesn’t this pie look delicious? I can smell it while I’m writing this blog 😄. Remove the Springform pan as soon as you can and put pie on a cooling rack.
Last step to add some sweetness and making it look even prettier: dust powdered sugar over the pie. Some of the sugar will be absorbed by the apples.
Mmmmmmh … time to make a pot of coffee ☕️ and enjoy a slice of this beauty 😍! As an option, which my hubby loves, add a scoop of vanilla ice cream and/or whipped cream on the side.
ENJOY 💗!
Nadine
Keep up with traditional German recipes! 