Dutch apple cake recipe

Inspired by the famous Dutch apple pie from Amsterdam’s Winkel 43 café, create this deliciously spiced cake for yourself.

Amsterdam’s Winkel 43 café is said to have the best apple pie (opens in new tab) in Europe. We thought we would save you the trip by showing you how to recreate it from the comfort of your own kitchen. The Dutch call it a pie but it really is more like an apple cake; the pastry (opens in new tab) has a sweet, almost sable like texture and encases an incredibly generous quantity of lightly spiced apples and raisins. We love the combination of the sweet crispness of the Braeburn with the tart acidity of the Granny Smith. Serve this apple cake (opens in new tab) with a silky dollop of crème fraîche and tuck in!

Ingredients

For the pastry:

• 200g butter, softened
• 80g light brown sugar
• 75g caster sugar
• 150g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
• 1tsp baking powder
• 120g ground almonds
• 1 egg, beaten (1tbsp reserved for egg wash)
• 1tsp vanilla bean paste

For the filling:

• 600g mixture of Granny Smith and Braeburn apples
• 40g raisins
• 25g caster sugar
• 1⁄2tbsp ground cinnamon
• 15g panko breadcrumbs
• crème fraîche, to serve

You will need:

• 20cm spring form tin, greased and base-lined

Method

1. Cream the butter and sugars until light and pale. Fold in the flour, baking powder and ground almonds.
2. Set aside 1tbsp of the beaten egg to use as a glaze later, mix the remainder with the vanilla paste and mix into the dough until just smooth. Roll into a ball and wrap in cling film. Chill in the fridge for an hour or overnight.
3. Heat the oven to 180C/ Gas 4. Roll out the dough to 3mm thickness between sheets of baking parchment dusted with flour. Line the base and sides, trimming the edge at 6cm high. Don’t worry if the pastry tears, just patch it up and press it together. Wrap the leftover pastry in cling film and put in the freezer while you prepare the apples.
4. Roll out the remaining pastry as before to form a circle that will fit as a lid across the top of the apple filling.
5. To make the filling: peel, core then cut the apples into 2-3cm chunks. Mix
6. the apples and raisins with the sugar and cinnamon and breadcrumbs. Pour the apple mix into the centre of the cake.
7. Bake for 30 mins then remove from the oven and using a pastry brush, brush the top with the remaining beaten egg. Return to the oven for a further 30 mins.
8. Cool in the tin for 10 mins, then remove from the tin, but leave on the base to cool or serve warm with cream.