Covered Apple Cake

Covered Apple Cake

Cake

There are various types of apple cakes in Germany. Here is one of them “Gedeckter Apfelkuchen”.

Baking time: 30 – 35 minutes /200°C

Ingredients

DOUGH

600 g spelt flour (or wheat flour)
2 packets baking powder
200 g butter/margarine
50 g sugar
1 packet vanilla sugar
1 pinch of salt
250 ml milk (or 250 ml soy cream or soy milk)
grated peel of 1 organic lemon

FILLING

750 g grated apples
juice of 1 lemon
50 g sugar
½ teaspoon cinnamon
100 g raisins
70 g ground nuts (almonds)
approx. 2 tablespoons of cream
almond slivers

Directions

Put the flour and the baking powder in a bowl and make a hole in the middle. Cut the butter in small pieces and distribute these on the flour. Put the sugar, salt, lemon peel and milk into the hole. Mix and knead to a dough. Place the dough in plastic foil and leave it in a cold place for 50 – 60 minutes.
In the meantime peel and grate the apples in a bowl. Add the lemon juice, sugar, cinnamon, raisins and ground nuts (almonds) and mix everything together.
Put ¾ of the dough in a greased round baking tin (28 cm) and form an edge on the sides. Spread the apple mixture on top. Pour the cream and distribute the almond slivers over the dough.
Roll out the rest of the dough, cut into strips and arrange in lattice fashion on top, pressing it down on the edges. Bake for 30-35 min at 200˚C.

 

 

Apple Cake with Crumbles

Apple Cake with Crumbles

Cake

Ingredients

APPLE CAKE
300 g flour
200 g butter or margarine
100 g sugar
Egg replacer for 1 egg
1 package vanilla sugar
6 apples
350 g apple puree

CRUMBLES
200 g butter/margarine
275 g flour
125 g sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
1 pinch of salt

 

Directions

APPLE CAKE
Mix flour, sugar, vanilla sugar and add egg replacer for 1 egg.
Cut the butter/margarine in small pieces and add it to the other ingredients. Work the dough until it is soft.
Prepare an oven tray with butter or  a bit of sunflower oil and press the dough inside so that all the tray is covered equally.
Switch on the oven on 175°C.
Cut the 6 apples in slices and spread them in one layer on top of the dough.
Spread the apple puree over the layer of apple slices.

CRUMBLES
Mix the flour, sugar, cinnamon and salt together. Melt the butter/ margarine in a pot and let it cool down a bit.
Then add the melted butter to the rest and mix it well. Make small crumbles with your hand and spread them on top of the layer of apple puree.
Bake for 35 – 40 minutes. Check during the last minutes that the crumbles don’t get too brown on top. (If they are getting too brown turn down the heat a bit).

 

 

Marzipan Cookies

Marzipan Cookies

Cake, Vegan, Gluten-Free

Ingredients

500 g marzipan (almond paste)
150 g sugar
5 tablespoons of ground flaxseed
2 tablespoons of water
1 tablespoon zest of an organic lemon
10 drops bitter almond oil
100 g almond slices
200 g dark chocolate, coarsely chopped

Directions

Pre-heat the oven to 200°C. Line a cookie sheet with baking paper.
In a small bowl mix the flaxseed and the water with a whisk. Put aside in fridge while mixing together the marzipan, sugar, lemon zest and the bitter almond oil to a smooth dough. Add the flaxseed mixture.

Set a bowl of water next to you. Place the almond slices on a plate. Dip your fingers into the water, tear some of the marzipan dough and form 6 cm rolls. Coat the marzipan rolls with the almond slices and then form crescent shaped cookies. Place on the cookie sheet. Continue in this way until you have used up all of the dough. You should get about 40 crescent cookies.
Bake the cookies for approx. 12-15 minutes or until golden. Take out and allow to cool on a rack.

In the meantime melt the chocolate in a bain-marie. Place your cookie rack over a sheet of baking paper. Dip both ends of each cookie into the chocolate and place on the rack. Allow the chocolate to set and dry.

 

Cornetti

Cornetti

Cake, Vegan

Ingredients

160 g margarine
250 ml soy milk
25 g yeast
415 g flour (I used half white flour and half spelt flour)
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 pinch of salt
chocolate cream or jam
powdered sugar

 

Directions

Dissolve the yeast in the milk and melted margarine. Put the flour with the salt and sugar in a bowl and make a hole in the middle. Pour the milk and margarine mixture in the center, start mixing by slowly putting the flour into the center. When the center is not liquid anymore, start working with your hands vigorously for a few minutes until you get a compact and solid dough that is still soft. Divide into 6 equal parts. Take one of the 6 parts and form a ball. While working a ball, cover the rest of the dough and cookies with a clean cloth otherwise they might risk drying out.

Roll out each ball of dough with a rolling pin to form a pizza with a diameter of about 15 cm, preferably round. Divide the pizza into eight slices and place a teaspoon of cream or jelly to the base of the triangle and spread it upwards. Roll the cookies starting gently from the outer edge of the triangle. Place the croissants on a baking paper, spaced apart from each other since they will rise.

Bake in unventilated oven at 180° C for about 15 min until they are golden. Roll the finished cookies in powdered sugar.

Lemon Spelt Cookies

Lemon Spelt Cookies

Cake

Ingredients

125 g spelt flour
1 tablespoon of rice flour (or cornstarch)
100 g cold butter, cut in pieces
30 to 50 g of sugar
½ teaspoon lemon zest
1 tablespoon lemon juice
a pinch of salt

Directions

Heat the oven to 180° C. Work all of the ingredients together quickly with your fingers. Then smooth out the dough to a thickness of 12 mm on a sheet of baking paper. Bake the dough in oven for about 10-12 minutes. Remove from the oven and cut into pieces (approximately 1.2 x 5.0 cm) while still hot. Alternatively cut out different shapes before baking in oven. To finish, sprinkle granulated sugar over the top. Allow to cool before serving.

Spitzbuben Cookies

Spitzbuben Cookies

Cake

Time: 3 hours (working time 1½ hour)

Ingredients

150 g sugar
280 g butter
200 g ground blanched almonds
2 teaspoons vanilla flavoring
500 g sifted all-purpose flour
A pinch of salt
apricot or strawberry jam
powdered sugar

 

Directions

Beat the sugar and the butter together until light and fluffy. Then beat in the almonds and the vanilla flavoring. Add the flour and the salt and knead until it is smooth. Chill for 1 to 2 hours. Preheat oven to 170º C. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured cutting board to the thickness of 3 – 5 mm, the thinner it is, the better the cookie. Cut with small round, star or diamond-shaped cookie cutters. Place the cookies on lightly greased and floured cookie sheets. In half of the cookies cut a hole with a small round cookie cutter or another round object of a similar size. Bake for about 15 minutes, or until golden. Remove the cookies from the baking sheet. Spread the whole cookies with jam and top them with the ones that have a hole in the middle. Sprinkle the cookies with powdered sugar.