Dutch Apple Pie

Dessert

Cook time: 75 minutes | “For children who have cooked before.”

Ingredients

  • 3 cups flour (350 grams)
  • 3 sticks butter or margarine
  • 7/8 cup white caster sugar (175 grams)
  • “Knifepoint” salt
  • 6 Jonagold apples
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar (100 grams)
  • 2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 2 teaspoons lemon zest
  • 1 spoonful currants
  • 1 spoonful raisins
  • 1 egg yolk

Kitchen Tools

  • Bowl
  • Knife
  • Rolling pin
  • Spoon
  • Cake form about 30 cm in diameter
  • Parchment paper
  • Measuring cups or scale
  • Zester (if you want to zest your own lemon)
Notes

Submitted by Dr. Astrid Grouls, assistant professor of geriatrics and palliative medicine

This Dutch Apple Pie is a true Dutch apple pie. This recipe is translated from a Dutch children’s recipe book and is the recipe my mother made as a little girl when she lived in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. It is a labor of love, and is the pie we all request for every special event, particularly over the holidays. It has a thick, crumbly, hand-pressed crust, and the apples are sliced paper thin. As with most Dutch desserts, it is not particularly sweet, but the raisins add a nice sweet pop. If you aren’t a fan of raisins, just leave them out with no further adjustments to the recipe.

From Astrid’s mom: “I use Jonagold apples, and 465 grams flour, 330 grams butter (3 sticks), 230 grams sugar. Two-thirds of the dough I use to cover the inside of the springform, 1/3 for decoration on top.”

From Astrid: “We don’t usually use currants – just double the amount of raisins. Also, I highly recommend you have something on hand to slice the apples, such as a food processor.”

Be careful! If you don’t know how to work the oven, be sure to ask someone for help. Also, removing the cake form is difficult sometimes. Have someone help you so that the pie doesn’t fall apart.

Directions

  • Mix together the flour, salt and sugar. Cut the hard butter into pieces (thin slices).
  • Using cold hands, knead the butter into the flour and sugar mixture, until you form a hard ball. Press the ball together tightly and let it rest in a cool spot for about half an hour.
  • In the meantime, make the filling. Soak the raisins and currants in warm water. Peel and core the apples, slicing the apple into fourths. Slice each fourth into very thin slices.
  • Mix the apple slices with the brown sugar, cinnamon and lemon zest. Remove the raisins and currants from the water and allow them to drain well. Dry the raisins and currants with a paper towel and then add them to the apple mixture.
  • Roll out the dough on a floured surface. Butter the cake form and set the rolled out dough into the cake form. (The sheet of dough should be big enough to also cover the vertical sides of the cake form.) Roll the remaining dough along the top edge to create a border.
  • Add the apple filling.
  • From the rest of the dough, cut thin strips and lay them across the pie in a lattice pattern. Press the ends of the lattice work into the edge of the dough well.
  • Whisk the egg yolk with a bit of water and brush this on the topside of the pie.
  • Ensure that the oven is preheated to 175 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit).
  • Set the cakeform in the oven and allow it to bake well over an hour (Mom’s note: 75 minutes).
  • Turn off the oven and set the cake form near the bottom of the oven another 10 minutes to ensure the bottom is well-baked. Allow the pie to cool before carefully removing the cake form.