David's uncle, his father's brother, Klaus, and his lovely wife, Anita, met in the mid 1930s, aboard a ship going from Germany to China. They were married in China, and their only child, Anita, was born in China, around 1937 or so. They lived in China until around 1940, when they returned to Germany. Anita was from Munich, Southern Germany, and as David's Omama Clara told me, Anita was always joy, and was a wonderful cook in the southern Bavarian style. When we visited them in Reinbek, in summer 1969, Anita made a wonderful apple cake for us, and explained to me how to make it. I made it several times at home. We used to have tow apple trees in our back yard, which were planted by David's father, Walter. The trees used to produce a lot of apples. One summer day I made several apple cakes. Our son Walter and I set up a stand at the corner of Beaver Lane and Kirby Road Later and sold slices of the cakes and apples. They sold like... hot cakes. Once in a while, over the years, when oour son Walter was a little boy, he asked me to make this apple cake for his birthday.
German Apple Cake
Servings: 8 to 10Prep and Cooking Time: 2 hours
Prepare the crust
If you prefer, you can skip this part, and use ready made pie crust from the grocery store refrigerator, like Pillsbury pie crust; buy enough for 4 pies. Use it according to package directions, except that you will roll it out with a rolling pin (dusted with flour, so it will not stick) to fit the bottom and insides of the pan, all around. If you are using store-bought crust, skip the following directions and continue below, where you se the three asterisks (***).
If you want to make your own crust, follow these difections:
1 2/3 cups flour
1/2 stick unsalted buter
1/2 cup watwernwith ice cubes in it (ice water)
This crust is worked cold and fast. It is best to keep your hands from warming up, too. So do not knead or rub this too much. Work quickly and lightly.
On a table or countertop, sprinkle flour, so the crust will not stick.
Place the flour in a mound on the table and put the butter in it. Quicckly cut the butter into the flour, using two table knives (or a hand pastry blender). Add a teaspoon sugar and cut it in. Add a little bit of cold water, like 1 teaspoon. Cut in. Powder your hands with flour, so dough will not stick to your hands. Split the dough into two portions, and put each one on a separate, large piece of plastic wrap, like Saran wrap. Roll each ball of dough into ball, rolling it in the plastic wrap. Put the two wrapped balls of dough in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or more.While the dough chills, prepare the apples.
*** Prepare the Apples
2 1/2 lb. apples ( about 6 to eight apples. Use tar apples, like Jonathan apples. Peel, core and slice apples. Squeze lemon juice over them.
2/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 stick unsalted butter
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Method:
In a large pot, like a Dutch oven, meltmthe butter until it turns alittle brown, but not burned.
- Put the sugar in and mix until the butter and sugar mix well and are not solid.
- Put the apples in. Mix everything well on high heat, and let it cook until it browns a little. The apples should be hard, do not cook until soft. Do not cover, as the apple mix will get too watery, and this mix should be the consistency of the filling of an apple pie, not runny. Do not let the apples get mushy like apple sauce. Remember that they will go in the dough and will cook some more time in the oven.
- Take off the heat of the stove and set aside.
Assemble the crust in the pan
Overview: Use a spring form cake pan, the kind that you unbuckle on the side. You will be covering the bottom and sides of the pan with dough, and later you willl put the apples in. After that, you will cover the top with a round of dough, as well. So, the cake will not be open as shown in the picture above, but it will be all covered in dough.
- Turn on the oven to preheat, 375 degrees on bake.
- Butter the pan well, all over the inside
- Beat two eggs in a little bow. Set aside, as you will use this to "glue" together the sides, top, and bottom of the dough, where those parts meet. You will also use it to "paint" the top of the pie, so it will have some color, and not appear to be ghostly white.
- Sprinkle flour on the table. Dust your hands and a rolling pin with flour.
- Take the dough out of the refrigerator.
- Roll the dough with a rolling pin. When you roll dough, roll it a bit bigger than needed, as dough tends to shrink in size, so always make the pieces a bit bigger, a half inch orso, than the exact size needed . You can roll the dough out by putting a piece of plastic over it, so it will not stick, or you can just roll it without any plastic on top. If it sticks, dust it with a little flour.
- Roll out a round disk of crust for the top, and set aside.
- Put apples in the crust-coverd pan, which should be ready with crust in the bottom and around the sides.
- Put the top disk of dough crust on the top, and pinch the dough to seal it with the top part of the side dough.
- With a pair of scissors or a knife, cut some slits, in any shape, on the top dough. This is to allow the steam from the apple to vent, and not stew the apples.
- With your finger, "paint" the entire top crust with the beaten egg, so it will have color, and sprinkle a little sugar on top (for shine).
- Put the whole thing in a 375 degree oven to bake, until it looks gold and done, about 30 minutes? Keep an eye on it.
Wait till it cools and serve with whipped cream. Tante Anita served it warm, from the oven, and poured cold heavy cream over it, instead of whipped cream.
Keep refrigerated.
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