Appeltaart

     My cousin AinA goes crazy for apples the way I go crazy for strawberries in the spring. I can't compete with her, but I do buy several dozen pounds over the course of the fall. One favorite use is apple cake. I have made several this fall, but none has been quite right. I was looking for a high ratio of apples to cake, and most had too much cake. Perhaps I really wanted a pie, but pies tend to be gooey-sweet and I just don't love them.
     However, I made my Alexis'  Dutch apple pie, and I think it is the winner. It's not overwhelmingly sweet, and has a shortbread base topped with almond paste*. Then you just pile on apples, tossed with cinnamon and jam. It's pretty straightforward, although it would have been easier if I had already had almond paste (instead I made it from scratch) and if I hadn't fought with the translation so long. (It took me a while to figure out that "Push the meat to good." meant "Press the marzipan mixture into the bottom.") I highly recommend it. If anyone wants to make it, email me and I'll send you a cleaned-up English language version. It's definitely worth it. And here's the recipe!


*Edited from marzipan to almond paste. I just figured out that they are different things - almond paste is softer, and the almond isn't ground so fine. That's the one you want, not marzipan.