French Apple Cheesecake

This is only the third apple cake recipe on the blog – I really don’t know how this could happen, as it feels as if almost every cake is an apple cake here… at least during autumn. But besides the classic apple pie and a nutty sponge cake the recipe for an Elsässer applecake, a french apple cheesecake, was still missing. Sliced apple cores are placed on a shortcrust pastry dough and topped with sweet cream. The result: a cross bottom, sweet apples and a creamy filling.

Recipe – French Apple Cheesecake

Amount: 1 cake
Time: 20 minutes prep, 2 hours cooling time, 45 minutes baking time

100 g butter
1 Tbsp white sugar
4 eggs, separated
1 pinch of salt
200 g flour
500 g apple
1 Tsp vanilla extract or 1 Tbsp vanilla sugar
80 g white sugar
zest of 1 lemon
125 ml cream

Prepare a short crust pastry 100 g butter, 1 Tbsp white sugar, 1 egg, 1 pinch of salt and 200 g flour. To do so cream the butter with the sugar. Then add in one egg. Now add one pinch of salt and 200 g flour into the bowl and knead with the dough hook of your kitchen machine until a smooth dough forms. Press the dough into a flat disk, wrap in saran wrap and cool at least 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 390° F (200° C, upper- and lower-heat). Fit a sheet of baking paper into a round springfrom cake pan and grease the sides.

Peel, quarter and core 500 g of apples. Slice the top of the apples slightly.

Roll out the dough with a bit of flour and add it to the pan. The dough should also go up the sides. Cut off the excess dough at the top and use it to fill holes or add to the sides. Place the apples on the dough.

Bake the cake for 20 minutes at 390° F (200° C, upper- and lower-heat).

Meanwhile prepare the filling by stirring together 3 eggs, 1 Tsp vanilla extract, 80 g white sugar, zest of 1 lemon and 125 ml cream.

After the first 20 minutes pour the filling over the apples and bake the cake at the same temperature for another 25 minutes.

For a sugar free variation: leave out the sugar in the dough. For the filling, instead of using white sugar, soak 4 dried apricots barely covered with some warm water for at least 30 minutes, then puree with the water.