Tuesdays with Dorie - Russian Grandmother's Apple Pie-Cake

I recently signed up to participate in the weekly challenges at Tuesdays with Dorie.  And what a great week for me to start!  The chosen recipe for March 11 was Russian Grandmother's Apple Pie-Cake.  Yum!  I love apples and cake AND pie so why not mix it all together to make something absolutely delicious!  Way to go Dorie!

Because its just little ol'me eating the fruits of my labor, I halved the recipe.  I still ended up with quite a bit but not too much.  I'll definitely be enjoying this tasty dish several times during the week.

The recipe calls for chilling the dough for at least two hours or up to 3 days.  So to make it easier for me (and I'm all about that), I made the dough Saturday night and let it chill in the fridge until I was ready for it on Sunday.

When the time came to start putting the rest together, I was expecting it to be a bit more complicated than it actually was.  Since I had made the dough ahead of time, that left me with a bit of time to get the apples cut up and the whole thing put together before the apples started browning.  

Fuji apples are one of my favorite apples to eat. Their sweetness and crispness made them perfect for this pie.  I lost a few of the apple slices in the process.  Some to me because I just can't seem to bake and NOT taste what I'm using.  The others went to my Shih-Tsu Charlie because he thinks he has to taste anything and everything that is being cooked in the kitchen.  Oh what the heck... and because he looks so cute begging that I can't help but feed the little bugger.

The only issue I had was when it was time to roll out the dough. I had planned on getting the dough rolled and in the pan before I cut up the apples. Of course, it was to hard to roll as the warning in the recipe said and I had to wait until I was finished with the apples before I could roll it out. Even then it was still a little hard to roll.  But I perservered and finally it started to give!  woo hoo!  Now I had a nice little rolled crust and my arms got a workout as well!  Then I looked at the top part of the crust sitting there oh so innocently waiting to be rolled as well.  Crap.  Well...another workout for my arms awaited (I'm sure they'll love me tomorrow, hehe).

Anyway, when my unexpected workout was done, I placed the bottom layer of the crust in my 8x8 in pan and pressed it in and up the sides of the pan.  It didn't quite make it all the way up the sides but that was okay.  That done, I dumped the apples in and spread them out.  For a moment I thought there would be more apples than pan but in the end it fit alright.

I put the top crust on and didn't quite have enough overhang but I managed to cover everything on the top...well mostly.  There was an apple and raisin that had just a tidge short on the crust.  

Oh well.  The end result was absolutely delicious.  I let the pan cool for awhile on a wire rack as suggested and it was hard not to dig in early!  But like Dorie says, I think that waiting and cool down made it tastier.  I'm usually not a crust fan but this crust was really good.  Sweet and slightly crunchy but not overly so.  I finished up the presentation but adding a dollop of Cool-Whip.  No, not good old fashioned home made whipped cream.  While that is tasty, I have always enjoyed having the tub stuff on my pies.  And it did not disappoint.   




Russian Grandmothers' Apple Pie-Cake

From Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan 

For The Dough
2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Juice of 1 lemon
3 1/4 - 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

For The Apples
10 medium apples, all one kind or a mix (I like to use Fuji, Golden Delicious and Ida Reds; my grandmother probably used dry baking apples like Cordland and Rome)
Squirt of fresh lemon juice
1 cup moist, plump raisins (dark or golden)
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Sugar, preferably decorating (coarse) sugar, for dusting

To Make The Dough: Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar together on medium speed until smooth, about 2 minutes. Add the eggs and continue to beat until the mixture is light and fluffy, about 3 minutes more. Reduce the mixer speed to low, add the baking powder and salt and mix just to combine. Add the lemon juice - the dough will probably curdle, but don't worry about it. Still working on low speed, slowly but steadily add 3 1/4 cups of the flour, mixing to incorporate it and scraping down the bowl as needed. The dough is meant to be soft, but if you think it looks more like a batter than a dough at this point, add the extra 1/4 cup flour. (The dough usually needs the extra flour.) When properly combined, the dough should almost clean the sides of the bowl.

Turn the dough out onto a work surface, gather it into a ball and divide it in half. Shape each half into a rectangle. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or for up to 3 days. (The dough can be wrapped airtight and frozen for up to 2 months; defrost overnight in the refrigerator.)

To Make The Apples: Peel and core the apples and cut into slices about 1/4 inch thick; cut the slices in half crosswise if you want. Toss the slices in a bowl with a little lemon juice - even with the juice, the apples may turn brown, but that's fine - and add the raisins. Mix the sugar and cinnamon together, sprinkle over the apples and stir to coat evenly. Taste an apple and add more sugar, cinnamon, and/or lemon juice if you like.

Getting Ready to Bake: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Generously butter a 9x12-inch baking pan (Pyrex is good) and place it on a baking shee tlined with parchment or a silicone mat.

Remove the dough from the fridge. If it is too hard to roll and it cracks, either let it sit at room temperature for about 15 minutes or give it a few bashes with your rolling pin to get it moving. Once it's a little more malleable, you've got a few choices. You can roll it on a well-floured work surface or roll it between sheets of plastic wrap or wax paper. You can even press or roll out pieces of the dough and patch them together in the pan - because of the baking powder in the dough, it will puff and self-heal under the oven's heat. Roll the dough out until it is just a little larger all around than your pan and about 1/4 inch thick - you don't want the dough to be too thin, because you really want to taste it. Transfer the dough to the pan. If the dough comes up the sides of the pan, that's fine; if it doesn't that's fine too.

Give the apples another toss in the bowl, then turn them into the pan and, using your hands, spread them evenely across the bottom.

Roll out the second piece of dough and position it over the apples. Cut the dough so you've got a 1/4 to 1/2 inch overhang and tuck the excess into the sides of the pan, as though you were making a bed. (If you don't have that much overhang, just press what you've got against the sides of the pan.)

Brush the top of the dough lightly with water and sprinkle sugar over the dough. Using a small sharp knife, cut 6 to 8 evenly spaced slits in the dough.

Bake for 65 to 80 minutes, or until the dough is a nice golden brown and the juices from the apples are bubbling up through the slits. Transfer the baking pan to a cooling rack and cool to just warm or to room temperature. You'll be tempted to taste it sooner, but I think the dough needs a little time to rest.

Source: Baking: From my Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan