Sunday, October 23, 2011

Almás Pite; Hungarian Apple Cake

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I have eaten broccoli with oyster sauce almost every day this past week. I can't seem to get enough of it and  I haven't even tired of it yet. I swapped out green beans one night which were good, but not as good as the broccoli which I love. I decided to bake today so I would at least have something to post about.

My grandmother made this apple cake which is quite popular in Hungary. It reminds me a bit of apple pie in that the filling is in the middle and the pastry is a sweetened version of the classic shortcrust pastry.

This cake is quite easy to make if you have a food processor; both for grating the apples as well as making the pastry dough. I like to add raisins which have been soaked in rum to the apple filling whereas my grandmother added ground walnuts to hers.



filling
2 tbsp raisins
1 tbsp dark rum
4 sour apples such as Granny Smith
1 - 2 tsp lemon zest, finely minced
3 tbsp sugar
2 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp flour

3/4 cup bread crumbs

Combine the raisins and rum in a small bowl and soak for 1-3 hours.



Peel the apples, if desired and cut them in quarters. Remove the seeds, then grate them. Place them in a bowl. Add the raisins and rum, lemon zest, sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon and flour. Toss to combine everything evenly. Set aside. (The bread crumbs will be added later.)

dough
2 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
a pinch or 2 of salt
1/2 cup butter, (1 stick) cold
3 tbsp sour cream
1 tbsp milk, give or take

icing sugar to sprinkle over the top of the finished cake


Add the flour, sugar and salt to the bowl of a food processor. Pulse a few times to combine. Cut up the butter and distribute evenly in the bowl of the food processor. Pulse a few times. Distribute the sour cream in small dabs evenly as well. Pulse a few times. 

The mixture will be quite crumbly. Refrigerate it or about 30 minutes.


Remove from the refrigerator and sprinkle on a small amount of milk. Toss the mixture and keep adding drops of milk until the crumbles can be formed into a ball.

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Take half of the dough and roll it out to fit the bottom of an 8  inch square baking dish which you have buttered.

Toss the apple filling with the bread crumbs and distribute it evenly over the dough.


Roll out the remaining dough to fit the top of the baking dish, over the apples. Once the dough is in place, trim the edges, then prick it all over with the tins of a fork or a tooth pick. 

Bake for about 40- 50 minutes or until the top is an even brown.

Cool completely, then dust the top with the icing sugar. Cut into squares to serve.

5 comments:

Sue/the view from great island said...

That's a beautiful cake, I love how it looks when it's cut. There's nothing better than grandmothers' recipes...neither of mine were good cooks, so I have to adopt other people's grandmothers, thanks for lending me yours!

Anonymous said...

I like to make Hungarian dishes and sweets that I remember my Hungarian grandmother made and she taught me. One in particular was Almas Pite, but I never had a recipe for it and could not make it quite right with no recipe. Thanks so much for sharing this. I am on it!

Gerlinde in Washington said...

Hope this turns out to your liking. Sometimes it's difficult to reproduce something from memory and even if you get it right, somehow grandma's seemed better.

Unknown said...

Hi,
It's seems to me the lower dough didn't bake.It can be avoid if pricking the dough with a fork as well, and pre-bake the first roll 13-15 minutes.The filling and the dough must be at the same temperature so cool it or boil the filling on the stove.My opinion the filling is tastier if it was boiled before bake the pie.Erika

Gerlinde in Washington said...

Erika, I will try cooking the filling beforehand the next time I make this. I'm curious.

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