The traditional Dutch appeltaart made with thick pieces of apples under a lattice crust, can be found on the menu of almost every restaurant in the country. A good appeltaart must have a buttery crust, and the apples should be tart and chopped into large chunks.
For more Dutch Apple Pie recipes, check out Issue 49 of Dutch the magazine…
Serves 8
Ingredients:
- ½ cup raisins
- 6 tbsps hot water
- 2 ⅓ cup all-purpose flour
- ⅔ cup brown sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- Pinch of salt
- ¾ cup cold butter, diced
- 1 egg yolk, plus one whole egg (whisked)
- 2 tbsps iced water
- 3 firm, tart apples (approx. 2 lbs), peeled, cored and roughly
- chopped
- 1 ½ tbsp custard powder
- 2 tbsps sugar
- 1 ½ tsps ground cinnamon
- Pinch of nutmeg
- 2 tbsps ground almonds
- 3 tbsps apricot jam
- Freshly whipped cream, to serve
Preparation:
- Rinse the raisins and soak them in the hot water.
- Place the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in your food processor and pulse a few times to mix. Add the butter and continue to pulse until the mixture starts to resemble coarse breadcrumbs. Add the egg yolk and the water and continue pulsing until the pastry comes together.
- Remove the pastry from the bowl and shape into a ball. Wrap it in cling film and allow it to rest in the fridge for at least an hour. When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350°C and remove the pastry from the fridge.
- Drain the raisins.
- Mix the apples with the custard powder, sugar, ground cinnamon, nutmeg and the dried fruit. Butter and flour a 9-inch springform pan.
- Roll ¾ of the pastry on a well floured surface to a circle of about 13 inches. Press it into the prepared pan, sprinkle the bottom with the ground almonds and fill with the apple mixture. Roll the rest of the pastry out to a circle of about ½ cm thick. Cut into strips of about ½ inch wide.
- Place the strips on top of the apples in a criss-cross pattern.
- Carefully trim the edges and brush with the whisked egg.
- Bake the pie on the lowest part of the oven for approximately 60-75 minutes. If the crust is getting too dark, cover with aluminum foil.
- Remove the pie from the oven and place on a wire rack.
- In a small pan, gently heat the apricot jam until it becomes liquid. Brush the top of the hot pie with the jam. Leave to cool for at least 20 minutes before releasing
- from the form and serving with freshly whipped cream.
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