Growing up in the same town with both grandma's was a great opportunity for me to experience the best of homemade cooking and baking. However I was a picky eater and the one of not too many ways how to make me eat something while staying over at my grandparents' houses was to give me something sweet. I liked candies of all kinds but you would agree with me that candy is not the best nutrition for a kid. So what else and sweet could my grandmas get into my belly? Cakes. And pies. Lots of them:) And I also liked apples - they used to be my no.1 favorite fruit (I even didn't drink any other juices except of apple juice). Luckily for me my grandmas were making great apple cakes and pies. I am sure that I'll introduce you to many of them but for a start here is the first, and my Joe's favorite recipe:
Ingredients:
400 g/14 oz of white all-purpose flour,
250 g/9 oz of unsolted butter,
1 tablespoons of baking powder,
150 g/5 oz of sugar,
2 tablespoons of milk,
2 eggs,
1.5 kg/3 pounds of apples,
cinnamon.
Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 200℃ /390℉ . Grease and flour your baking tin or use the parchement paper as I did. Then grate apples to have them prepared after the dough is done.
Into the prepared flour on a big chopping board (or on a wooden table as myself), spread the whole amount of unsolted butter, using your fingers.
Small nubs of butter may remaine, then mix in baking powder, sugar, eggs and milk. Process the mixture into a fine dough and portion out into two equal pieces.
Shape one piece of dough into the size of prepared tin and bring the dough in it.
Add grated apples on the whole surface of the dough, then sprinkle with cinnamon and vanilla sugar. If necessary, add some more amount of sugar, to assure the apples will be sweet according to your taste. Then cover with second layer of prepared dough.
Before placing the tin into the oven, make sure some small holes made with a forke are all over the coverin layer of dough. This will help to look better after the cake is done.
When everything is ready, place the tin into the oven and bake until it turns golden, approx. 20-30 minutes. A toothpick inserted into the center of the cake should come out clean. Transfer the tin from the oven and let cool for 20 minutes before slicing.
