Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Healthy Apple Pie- German style (Apfelkuchen)

This recipe is adapted from one of Steffen's German cookbooks. The book is called "Kochen und Backen nach Grundrezepten" by Luise Haarer and Regina Menne. What I love about the recipe is that it is a basic crust with minimal fat and sugar and you can use almost any fruit for the filling. We used to double the recipe and make it on a large baking sheet, but I found out after preparing it once here, in Germany, that the baking sheet doesn't fit in our little oven :( So now I bake it in a 26 cm tart pan.

Here is the recipe for the crust-
-Preheat the oven to 375
You will need:
65 grams of melted butter (about half a stick of butter)*( I usually use about 30 grams of butter and 35 grams of applesauce)
250 grams of flour *( I typically use spelt flour, but i'm sure any other flour would be fine)
65 grams of sugar *(because I use apple sauce I usually add a little less sugar)
1 egg
2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon baking powder

I mix everything in the mixer until it has mostly come together. Then you will have to knead it a little on a lightly floured surface until all ingredients are well combined. I haven't had great success with rolling the dough out and then transferring it to the pan, so I just flatten the dough by hand into the pan. Make sure you grease your pan with cooking spray or butter. Once the dough is evenly pressed into the pan you can continue with the filling.

Here is what you need for the filling:
5-6 apples depending on what size they are. Try to use a firm apple, Granny Smiths or Golden Delicious apples work well
2 tablespoons sugar (optional)
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon (optional)
1/4 cup raisins (optional)

Wash and peel the apples. Cut the apples in half and remove the seeds. I like to use a melon baller for the part. Then slice each half into small even slices.  Once you are done you can arrange the apples how ever you like onto the crust. Once you are done arranging the apples you can sprinkle the cinnamon and sugar on top. If you decide to add the raisins I would wait until the last few minutes of baking to add them and cover the pie with foil after since they tend to burn easily.

Once you are finished preparing the pie, place it in your preheated 375 ℉ oven for 40-45 mins. Once the crust starts getting brown around the edges is it done.

I have also made this same recipe using fresh apricots and plums and they came out great!








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