APPLE TART - LET´S TRY OMA´S RECIPE (BAKE THIS WITHOUT SUGAR)

Oma, as we fondly called her, was my husband´s grandmother. In the 50´s she was kind of a great personality among her friends and stood out as a person who always had a solution to a problem in her family. She was a great woman with a strong character. When I came to know her, she just turned 80 who was then energetic and very independent and still managed her life even in her most advanced age. In the course of the 14 years I´ve known her, she was the one who taught me how to cook viennese food, giving tips, shortcuts and secrets on how to make delicious dishes. She baked without recipes on hand as she knew the ingredients and procedures by heart. Robust as it seemed, she suffered from a non malignant heart tumor that doctors did not want to operate because of her advanced age in her 90´s.

We were "good vibes" so to speak, for we easily understood each other having the same interests. When she passed away, she left me her most beloved sewing machine, her enormous quantity of fabrics and crafts supplies, cooking and baking books and wares.

This is one of her recipes that I always bake spontaneously whenever apples are available at home. The secret of the recipe is the way the apples are prepared as fillings, the nuts and most of all the crispy crust on top. So now, let´s bake this delicious stuff.

NOTE:
If you have some sugar issues or would want to avoid calories, there are good sugar substitutes available in the market that can be used to bake this. If you want to substitute sugar with Stevia powder for example, you can measure the given sugar in the recipe by the spoons... the same spoons of Stevia can be substituted so that the ratio is 1:1.

OMA´S APPLE PIE

Preheat oven at 180°C / ca. 350°F

Ingredients - Pie fillings:
1.5 kg apples
100 g sugar
50 g brown sugar
1 tsp grated lemon peel

1/2 teaspoon Nutmeg
1/2 cup raisins
1 cup chopped almonds
6 Tablespoons plum marmalade (I use strawberry jams sometimes)
1 egg yolk to coat the grid topping

COOKING THE APPLE FILLINGS

Peel the apples and remove the seeds, slice into small pieces, slow-cook in a casserole adding apples, sugar and lemon peel, always mixing until apples become medium soft (about 10 minutes) and liquid has evaporated. If more liquid comes out from apple cooking, remove excess liquid or drain the cooked apple, set aside and let it cool down. Then add the nutmeg, nuts, raisins and marmalade until all are well blended. Set aside.

PREPARE THE CRUST

1....Combine below ingredients in a bowl, knead into a smooth dough, form into a ball then cover with plastic foil and refrigerate for about 30 minutes:

500 g all purpose Flour
30 g Sugar,
a pinch of salt,
200 g Butter,
cut into cubes
1 Tbsp table vinegar
10 Tbsp cold water

2...Roll- out the dough on a floured surface using a rolling pin. Use dough to line the pie form carefully pressing all the inner sides to shape the crust. Run the rolling pin over the pie form to remove excess pastry . Keep excess dough material as grid to decorate the pie top later.

3...Fill crust with the cooked apple mixture and arrange strips of dough to cover pie in grid form. For a golden brown appearance, brush the grid with egg yolk. Bake the pie for about an hour in the preheated oven.

Serve warm or cold with whipped cream ( optional).

Here´s hoping you like Oma´s Apple Tart!

Thank you for visiting.

Mers
https://steemit.com/@mers

Note: All contents and photos on this blog are mine unless otherwise stated.