Ingredients
Crust:
- 110 g butter (unsalted), room temperature
- 60 g superfine sugar (4 EL)
- pinch pure vanilla powder
- 140 g spelt flour (type 630)
Filling:
- 1 package bourbon vanilla sugar (10 g)
- 1 large egg
- 250 g full fat quark (40 %) (alternative cream cheese or ricotta)
- 1 tablespoon spelt flour (type 630)
Topping:
- 2 apples, peeled, cored, and sliced (not too thin, see notes)
- 50 g soft brown sugar (I recommend unrefined Mascobado from GEPA)
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (ceylon)
- 3 tablespoon sliced almonds (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 220°C. Grease a springform tart pan (Ø 24 cm) with butter.
- Cream together butter, sugar, vanilla with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add the flour and beat together until JUST combined, and forms a dough. Do not overmix.
- Press the crust mixture into the flat bottom the springform pan, with 2,5 cm up the side of the pan. Set aside. (dust fingertips in flour, if necessary to stop from sticking to fingers).
- In a medium bowl, whisk egg and vanille zucker together until well combined. Add the quark and whisk together until incorporated. Pour cheese mixture over crust. Using a spatula, spread the mixture evenly over the base.
- For the topping: Place apples in another bowl. Sprinkle with brown sugar and cinnamon. Toss the sliced apples with the sugar mixture until well coated with the sugar mixture. Spread the apples over the quark filling in a circular pattern, starting from the outside and working in a circle, slightly overlapping. Scatter almonds on top.
- Bake on middle rack, for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 190°C and continue baking for 25 minutes. Until center set and the sides are golden brown. Transfer to a cooling rack to cool slightly before removing from pan.
- Serve warm or wait until cooled completely. Enjoy!
Nutrition
Notes
- For this German Apple Torte, I use medium-sized apples, which I peel, quarter, and core, then slice each wedge into 4 pieces. The odd wedge might be only 3 pieces. This size works perfectly for the baking time.
- Depending on the type of spring form you have some butter may leak from crust, so place a sheet of baking paper on the rack below while baking.
- The base of this cake is more similar to soft shortbread, meaning it is not dry and flakey, but rather soft. This is intended as after testing this recipe a number of times, the general consensus was that a softer crust was preferred with the quark and apples, since there is some crunch from the almonds. My testers also think this has the perfect amount of sweetness for an Apfelkuchen. Personally, I prefer a little less in the base, so would reduce that to 1-2 tablespoons, if desired.