Polish Apple Cake By Ren Behan
By: Renatka Behan
Published: Monday, January 24, 2011 - 5:08am

Ingredients




For the dough-
3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 cups unsalted butter (at room temperature)
1 cup caster sugar
3 wholes egg yolks plus one egg (at room temperature)
1 tablespoon plain yogurt
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
1 teaspoon almond essence or vanilla extract
For the filling-
6 large Bramley Apples (peeled and chopped into cubes)
3 tablespoons caster sugar
200 milliliters water
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preparation

1 To bake - use a 24cm x 28cm cake tin lined with baking paper 2 Pre-heat oven to 400 oF 3 To make the apple filling stew the apples and filling ingredients in a pan for five minutes or so until they are lightly stewed but not too soft. Leave to cool.  You could do this in advance. 4 To make the dough. If possible use a food processor or mixer if not, knead well by hand. Combine the flour and baking powder and mix well.  Add the butter and blitz again for a minute.  Add caster sugar, egg yolks and egg, plain yogurt, almond essence or vanilla extract and lemon zest and pulse until a dough forms.  It will be quite crumbly, place the dough onto a board and form into  a ball. 5 Split the dough - take 1/3 wrap it in cling film and place it in the freezer. 6 Take the remaining 2/3 and either roll out or take pieces and place it in the bottom of your cake tin so that it is covered and there are no gaps showing.  If necessary, use your knuckles to press the dough down until it is fairly flat. 7 Prick the dough with a fork and bake (uncovered) for ten-fifteen minutes in the oven. It should be golden and a little bit firm but not fully cooked. 8 Take it out of the oven and turn the oven down to 350oF 9 Spoon your stewed apples onto the cooked dough in the tin. 10 Take the 1/3 dough from the freezer and grate (like a block of cheese). This is to go on top of the apples as your third layer. 11 Sprinkle the grated dough over the apples in the tin and bake in the oven for a further 40-50 minutes (at the lower temperature) 12 Serve with fresh cream and enjoy as a teatime treat!

About


This is a traditional Polish Apple Cake known as a Szarlotka. We used to make this cake at home with apples from our garden. Now it makes a perfect teatime treat for kids or visitors!