My Favorite Dutch Dessert: Apple Pie!

My Favorite Dutch Dessert: Apple Pie! Posted by Karoly Molina on Sep 25, 2014 in Culture

Last month, I wrote about my grandma’s delicious cookie recipe and my baking venture in the Netherlands. Since then, the video I included about baking an apple pie has consumed my dreams. My sweet tooth drove me to try it out, all in an effort to practice my Dutch listening skills, and I am proud to say it was a success!

The video does a great job at explaining the recipe, plus it is a great listening exercise in which you make your own incentive, so I will merely mention a few important aspects.

The ingredients you’ll need are:

-1 ei

-1 citroen

-400g zelfrijzend bakmeel (self-rising flour)

-250g basterd zuiker (brown sugar)

-1 mespoint zout (knife tip of salt)

-6 appels

-2 teelepels caneel

-150g amandelspijs (optional)

Appeltaart ingredients

In regards to instructions:

-This recipe is enough for one dik appeltaart or two dun ones. Choose your pan wisely!

-The amandelspijs was a new ingredient for me. In English it is called almond paste and the consistency is very similar to marzipan. The effect it had on the taart was absolutely amazing!

-Make sure you have a clean table to work where you can have all your ingredients nearby. The kitchen counter (at least in my apartment) was not big enough so I used our eettaffel.

-Instead of making a traditional top korst, I opted for using a cookie cutter in the shape of a haart! This was a bit more work but the appeltaart looked amazing!!

–Vanille-ijs was definitely missing from my appeltaart!

personal photograph

Veel succes met de appeltaart!

Tags: appeltaart, apple pie, baking, Dutch food, Netherlands

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About the Author: Karoly Molina

Since I was a little girl, I was fascinated with languages and writing. I speak English, Spanish, Italian, Dutch and a little bit of French. I am a writer, reader, language teacher, traveler, and a food lover! I now live in The Netherlands with my husband Riccardo, our cat Mona, and our dog Lisa, and the experience has been phenomenal. The Dutch culture is an exciting sometimes topsy-turvy world that I am happily exploring!

Comments:

Ilja DeYoung:

You are absolutely right. Apple pie is delicious!

A little note to add: In the Netherlands apple pie is not considered a dessert. It is eaten with coffee (or tea).

People will look at you very surprised if you’d called it a dessert (“toetje”) and are even more surprised if you ate it with ice cream or custard or cream.

To make the apple pie even better: before you put the apples in put a thin layer of custard powder on de dough. It will absorb some of the moisture from the apples (thus leaving the bottomlayer less soggy) and add a nice hint of a flavour.

You may also like to mix in some raisins with the apples in the filling.
- Karoly G Molina:
  
  @Ilja DeYoung Ilja, you are right! I’ve only seen it served with slagroom, but I just love apple pie with ice cream! I will try using custard powder next time! The apples were very watery!
Peter Simon:

Where I live (Gelderland), people may buy a ‘tart’ for a birthday, but not bake – neither an appeltart, nor anything else. My friends prefer to put slagroom on top, but only the canned kind, not the real stuff I’m afraid.

Where I come from (Hungary), it is usual to take some cake of candies to your workplace as well, but it may vary with the person (I, being a lone man, never did it). To my mind, presenting a cake to the ‘celebree’ is more appropriate than expecting the person to bake something on (or before) her birthday for others, while she probably has enough to do at home to arrange for her own guests. But we’re all different. Thanks for the insight.
- Karoly G Molina:
  
  @Peter Simon Hi Peter! Good to know that outside Limburg people eat cake! I miss birthday cake…

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