Dutch Apple Pie (Oma's Appeltaart)

Mizzle's Note:

This recipe is for the traditional dutch apple pie, found on a Belgian website. It can be served both warm or cold, usually with whipped cream (but ice cream tastes great as well :D ). You will need a *springform* cake pan, or a lot of patience, or you will not be able to get the pie out! Because Dutch recipes generally use grams instead of cups for dry ingredients, I have included the measurements in grams as well. The dough is shortbread-like and may take a lot of time to get right. It took me ages to get it to form a ball, but it worked out fine in the end. If you're getting tired of it, add a little milk, but don't despair for with or without the milk, it *will* from a ball in the end. If you want, you can prepare the apple mixture the previous day and keep it in the fridge, the flavors will blend wonderfully. If you want to prepare the dough in advance, take it out of the fridge in time, because it's really hard to work with when it's just been in the fridge for a whole night. The preparation time is a rough estimate and assumes that you peel the apples while the dough is in the fridge. I'm quite slow at preparing so it could be anywhere between 1 and 2 hours for you. Last but not least, *do* make sure you have a bit of dough left over for the third to last step - you deserve a little something for all that hard work! :D

• Total Time: 3 hrs 15 mins
• Prep Time: 2 hrs
• Cook Time: 1 hrs 15 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 8

for the dough

• 2 1⁄8; cups self-rising flour (300g)
• ¾ cup butter (180g) or ¾ cup margarine (180g)
• ½ cup brown sugar (150g)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence or 1 (8 g) packet vanilla sugar
• 1 pinch salt

for the filling

• 2 ¼ lbs apples (1kg)
• ¾ cup raisins (washed and dried, 100g)
• ¼ cup granulated sugar (40g)
• 3 teaspoons cinnamon (or more to taste)
• 2 ½ teaspoons lemon juice (or more to taste)

and

• 1 egg
• 3 tablespoons semolina (to absorb the juices)

Directions:

1. For the dough:.
2. Sieve the flour, brown sugar, vanilla and the salt into a bowl.
3. Cut the butter or margarine into small cubes and add these to the flour mixture.
4. Beat the egg and add 3/4 of it to the flour mixture (you will need the rest for the top).
5. Using two knives, mix the butter/margarine and the flour mixture.
6. Using one hand, kneed it to form the dough - you should be able to form it into a ball (this may take quite long).
7. Put the ball of dough in the fridge for about an hour, in the meantime, make the filling.
8. For the filling:.
9. Peel the apples and cut them in cubes (allow the sizes to vary--it'll taste better).
10. In a (large) bowl, combine apple, raisins, (granulated) sugar, cinnamon, the lemon juice and half of the semolina.
11. Mix well and allow the flavors to blend, stirring occasionally.
12. Then:.
13. Butter a 9-inch round springform cake pan, or spray it with a non-stick spray.
14. Line the pan (bottom and sides) with about 3/4 of the dough - as long as the pan is covered, the layer need not be very thick.
15. Cover the bottom with the remaining semolina.
16. Add the filling, but try to leave the juices out.
17. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the remaining dough until it's less than 1/4 inch (1/2 cm) thick.
18. Cut the dough into strips and layer them over the apple pie to form a raster, covering no more than one third of the surface--you should be able to see quite a bit of the apple pieces (see picture).
19. If necessary, use (some of) the remaining dough to make the edges a bit higher.
20. Use the remaining egg to coat the dough strips.
21. Bake the pie at 175°C / 340°F, just below the middle of your oven, for about 75 minutes.
22. If you have any dough left, roll it out, sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon (or left-over apple mixture) and bake it on baking paper for a few minutes.
23. Remove the springform only *after* the pie has cooled.
24. Serve warm (reheat in oven or microwave) or cold, with whipped or ice cream, or freeze.

Reviews

[omarosie]

This recipe was easy to make. I did the pastry in a food processor, and it worked out well.I used unsalted butter, added tablespoon of custard powder and a little iced water to the dough, as the egg didn't seem to be enough. i didn't use semolina, i used the custard powder. I did turn down the heat after 30 mins, and put alumminium foil on the top of pie close to end of cooking time.My mother, who is dutch, made an apple tart from the Groot Margriet kookboek, she said this recipe was better!! So I thoroughly recommend it, it will become a favourite in our household, especially with my husband!!!

[Chef #229272]

I have made this often and have adapted some items. I always use unsalted butter and never add additional salt since the self-rising flower contains salt. It turns out to be not as salty as the required salt in the original recipe overpowers the taste. Otherwise, it is just great. My husband and his mother "oma" enjoy a taste of HOLLAND. Thanks!

[sho enough]

Very nice pie, I made it to serve to my aughter's soon to be in-laws when we met them for the first time. I avoided the pastry challenges by mixing in the food processor an used a vanilla bean for added flavour an a contemporary look! I used the custard powder as suggested by several reviewers and loved the aditional taste an texture! Will definitly make this again!