German Apple Cake

This German Apple Cake – Gedeckter Apfelkuchen was on my to-bake list for years from the time I was a law student at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. I did not cook or bake much while studying. With 700 pages of weekly reading of treatises and case law, there was little time for culinary endeavors during the week. While I had my nose in books, Weldon took over kitchen duty and became an expert in preparing taco and chicken dinners on alternate nights. On weekends, however, when there were no classes, wanting to relieve Weldon of kitchen responsibilities, I would cook a few nice dinners of roasts and stews with sufficient leftovers for few weeknight meals. But in those days, I was not much of a baker, so I usually purchased a nice dessert.

We lived on a hill overlooking Middleton, the “Good Neighbor City,” a town of 2,500 souls two miles west of Madison, consisting of elm-shaded streets, a succession of hills, valleys and prairies. Once a gathering place for Ho-Chunk and other Indian nations, the town was later settled by English and German immigrants. Not much evidence of the Indians nor the original English settlers remained by the time we lived in Middleton, but German heritage was still evident in the local Lutheran Church and a handful of businesses with German surnames.

We lived in Middleton for several years before I discovered this dessert. One fall day, a friend told me about this wonderful little German bakery on a side street in Middleton which baked delicious pies, European pastries and breads. She especially recommended the mile-high apple pie which, she said, was a specialty of this bakery each fall when apple season started.

So looking for our weekly dessert, I stopped at this bakery after grocery shopping one October Saturday hoping to get one of the much-lauded apple pies and was surprised there was a queue of about a dozen people ahead of me. By the time I reached my turn and was ready to get my apple pie, I learned that the last pie was just sold. While there were countless other pies and pastries available, I had my heart set on an apple dessert. Seeing my disappointment, the saleslady suggested that I try the “Gedeckter Apfelkuchen.”

I didn’t know what “gedeckter” meant but recognized “apfelkuchen” as apple cake. It was a round cake, not a pie, with straight vertical sides about three inches high, with a glazed pastry top. No apples were visible on the cake, but the saleslady said this is a classic German dessert filled with apples. “You will not be disappointed,” she assured me.

And we weren’t disappointed. In fact, this German Apple Cake — Gedeckter Apfelkuchen was a stunning dessert. The cake was filled to the brim with a dense filling of distinct apple slices, studded with plump raisins. Each bite produced a complex taste of juicy apples, raisins, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, vanilla and lemon. We were hooked and enjoyed many German Apple Cakes during our six years in Middleton. We never tried that special apple pie.

This German Apple Cake haunted me for years after we left Middleton, but I couldn’t find the recipe. On many occasions, I experimented with adapting apple pie recipes to create my version of Gedeckter Apfelkuchen; in each instance, the result was delicious, but not quite what we loved in Middleton. So I added the German Apple Cake — Gedeckter Apfelkuchen to my to-bake list and forgot about it as other life events captured my attention.

This colorful fall again brought memories of that special dessert. I decided it was time to renew my search when I saw this year’s crop of beautiful apples at the market. Since it was a German classic, I turned to German food blogs and was rewarded with hundreds of recipes in German. In reviewing these recipes, I learned that “gedeckter” is often translated as “covered” or “topped,” which refers to the top crust, and that the pastry was a shortcrust, not flaky American pie dough. That explained why my attempts at replicating this German Apple Cake with apple pie recipes were not successful. I translated and combined several recipes that sounded closest to the German Apple Cake — Gedeckter Apfelkuchen of my dreams, substituting American ingredients that I thought were closest to what would be used in Germany, and went to work.

As Marcel Proust noted about madeleines in In Search of Lost Time, food memories are very powerful and vivid, evoking a nostalgia for a time past lovingly recalled. As I tasted the product of my efforts, I was transported to those fall days in Middleton, a very special time in our lives, when we were young and just starting out on life’s path.

Did this German Apple Cake — Gedeckter Apfelkuchen live up to my memories? It did in every respect, and it even may be better. The firm apple filling, redolent with brandied raisins, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, vanilla and grated lemon peel, and enhanced with boiled cider, superbly honors this year’s apple crop with an intense apple-ly flavor. The lemony glaze adds a perfect zing. The pastry case, with its biscuit, crumbly texture, is slightly sweet but sturdy enough to hold up to the weight of the wet filling when removed from the baking form. It looks beautiful, but tastes even better!

This recipe is definitely a keeper. The German recipes I reviewed suggest the following variations: adding flaked or slivered almonds to the filling and as topping on the glaze, substituting cranberries in lieu of raisins for Christmas, covering the top with lattice, substituting a honey-glaze with pistachios and flavoring with rum instead of apple brandy. Each version sounds delectable. I can’t wait to try them all.

German Apple Torte – Gedeckter Apfelkuchen

For the filling:

4 pounds apples (Golden Delicious or Gala or a fifty-fifty mixture)
2 tablespoons lemon juice
½ lemon
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
5 tablespoons Instant ClearJel* or finely ground tapioca
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
¼ teaspoon allspice
¼ cup boiled cider** or undiluted apple juice concentrate
¾ cup raisins (golden or dark)
¼ cup apple brandy (Calvados or apple schnapps)

For the dough:

14 ounces +1 tablespoon (400g) all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
2½ ounces (70g) sugar
1 package Dr. Oetker vanilla sugar or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
4-5 tablespoons milk
5¼ ounces (150g) unsalted butter, very cold

For the glaze:

1 cup (140g) confectioners’ sugar
1½ tablespoons lemon juice, freshly squeezed

One 8-inch (20cm) round springform pan, 2-3 inches deep, buttered

Fill large bowl with cold water and add lemon juice and lemon.

Place raisins in a small microwave-safe bowl and add apple brandy. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and microwave for a minute or so until liquid is hot, but not boiling. Set aside for raisins to plump.

For the apple filling, peel, core, quarter and cut the apples into ¼ inch thick slices on a mandolin or with a knife and immediately toss apple slices in prepared lemon and water. When all apples are sliced and coated in the acidulated water, drain apple slices in a colander.

Melt butter in a wide saucepan or Dutch oven with a cover, and add apples, ½ cup sugar, salt, spices and boiled cider. (If using tapioca as a thickener, do not add boiled cider at this point. Combine tapioca with boiled cider and let stand for 20 minutes to soften before adding along with raisin and sugar in the following step below.) Cook over low heat, stirring gently with a rubber spatula, until softened, about 25 minutes.

Add raisins with soaking liquid to the apples. Combine remaining sugar with ClearJel (or tapioca) and stir into the apple mixture. Cook a few more minutes until liquid is absorbed. Refrigerate apple filling if not baking the cake the same day.

For the dough, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in the bowl of a food processor and pulse to mix. Cut butter into small cubes and add, pulsing until the butter is no longer visible and the mixture looks crumbly. Add eggs and pulse until the dough starts to form a ball. Invert on a floured counter and shape into a disk. Wrap and chill the dough for at least an hour, or even overnight, before proceeding. (Instructions for manual preparation: Using a pastry cutter or your hands, work the butter into the flour sugar, baking powder and salt until it no longer visible. Add eggs and knead until the dough is smooth. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or up to 24 hours.)

When you are ready to bake, set a rack on the lowest level of the oven and preheat oven to 430°F (220°C).

Remove filling from the refrigerator, if stored overnight, at least 30 minutes before baking and bring to room temperature.

Remove dough from the refrigerator about 15 minutes before rolling. Lightly knead the chilled dough to soften it. Divide the dough into ⅓ and ⅔ pieces. Roll the ⅔ piece of dough on a floured surface to a ¼ inch thickness. Using the springform pan for shape, cut around to make a dough round to fit the bottom and place in the pan.

Consolidate dough scraps into a ball. Repeat this step using the ⅓ piece of dough and cut a dough round to fit the top. Set aside. Add and knead scraps to the previously made ball and roll a strip of pastry (or several) to fit the circumference and height of the pan. (26 inches (64cm) by 3 inches (7.6cm) for an 8 inch (20cm) pan.) Fit this strip along the wall of the pan, dampening the edge of the bottom dough with a bit of water, overlapping at ends and pressing at joints and bottom of dough with a fork to assure a seal. Cut away excess dough at the rim of the pan, leaving about ½ inch. (Save leftover dough for later use.)***

Spread room temperature apple filling in the pan up to ½ inch from rim of the pan, pressing with a spatula to remove any vacant spaces. (Save for later use. I had 1 cup of filling left over.)*** Fit dough top over the filling, dampen edge with water and fold the dough edge from the side of the pan to cover and seal, using a fork to press down the folded dough. Dock top with a fork to allow steam to escape.

Bake for 30 minutes on a rack in the lower third of the oven. Reduce temperature to 350°F (180°C); cover top with aluminum foil to prevent over-browning and bake for another 30 minutes until dough is baked and dark golden. Cool on a rack to room temperature.

Unmold the pie to a platter keeping the bottom of the pie as the top and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight. The filling will thicken as the cake rests.

For glaze, combine confectioners’ sugar with lemon juice in in small saucepan and stir gently avoiding bubbles until smooth. Heat to lukewarm and, with an offset spatula, quickly spread on cake. Let glaze set before serving.

Garnish as desired. German recipes suggest serving with whipped cream. (I served my first version without whipped cream. I garnished each dessert plate with painted stripes of boiled cider reduced to a syrup and a flower made from two slices of dehydrated apple, coated in thickened raspberry jam.)

Serves 12

* Instant ClearJel is a modified cornstarch with special properties. See a discussion of its merits at http://www.kitchenepiphanies.com/peach-blueberry-almond-crust-galette/ . Available online at King Arthur Flour or Amazon.

** I made boiled cider at home following this recipe from The Washington Post: Pour 1/2 gallon of apple cider to a large (non-reactive) pot. Set the pot over medium-high heat and bring the cider to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and let cook, stirring occasionally, for 4-5 hours, or until the cider has reduced to about 1 cup and has a thick, syrupy consistency. Transfer to a small lidded jar and store in the refrigerator.

Boiled cider can also be bought on the King Arthur Flour website.

*** I tightly covered and froze the dough scraps and filling. A few weeks later, I was able to relive the taste of this German Apple Cake by placing the thawed filling in a ramekin, topping it with a round cut from rolled leftover sraps of dough, which I baked for 25 minutes at 350°F (180°C) until bubbly.