Apple Cake with Cinnamon & Cardamom

I´m a summer person. I don´t mind 35°C, have no problems with tropical humidity, but I cannot stand cold and darkness. So I´m definitely not happy about the final arrival of fall. Since two days now it´s been freezing cold and raining in Dortmund. Even at noon you have to switch on the lights and, worse, I know it´s only the beginning of a long bleak and freezing time.

Luckily even this season has its bright spots – if only a few – and I am determined to enjoy them: Today I have got apples and plums from my parents´ garden, a few early grapes from friends and finally, after months of suffering car-less in Dortmund´s outskirts, I have got my new car. This gorgeous tiny thing brings me to the shops again, and at long last I can restock my cupboards.

Since it´s so warm and cozy in my kitchen and I had all the apples, today I made an apple sheet cake. It may look unimpressive but it bursts with flavour. I combined rather common components like apples, spices and yeast dough in a way I did not try before. It turned out to be delicious, even extraordinary, the dough soft and airy, topped with juicy apples, a little crunch from the coarse sugar, greatly matched by the spices.

The cake was simple and easy. The yeast dough took just a bit of time for rising. Especially when it´s cold outside I love the warmth of spices, and when the cake cooked in the oven, the whole house smelled snugly of cardamom and cinnamon.

Ingredients:

1 kg apples (2lb)

3.5 g instant yeast (o.11 oz)

300 g unbleached all-purpose flour (10.5 oz)

30 g caster sugar (1 oz)

100 ml tepid milk

1 egg, lightly beaten

50 g butter, melted and cooled (1.75)

pinch of salt

3 tbsp coarse brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1/3 tsp of ground cardamom

100 g sliced almonds (3.5 oz)

Method:

In a mixing bow combine yeast, milk, butter, white sugar. Stir and set aside for 5 or 6 minutes, until mixture bubbles and foams.

Add the egg, salt and the flour, a cup at a time, mixing with your hands or a wooden spoon until the dough comes together and forms a manageable ball. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 8 to 10 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic.

Let the dough rise for 1 – 1,5 hours, until about doubled

In the meantime peel the apples, slice them about 0,5 cm thick.

Preheat the oven to 180°C (355°F) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Deflate the dough softly by pushing with your fingertips, roll out on a floured work surface until it is about 30 x 40 cm and 0,5 cm thick, at the utmost. Transfer to the baking sheet and pull into shape.

Arrange the apples on the dough generously. They should imbricate.

Mix the sugar with cinnamon and cardamom, sprinkle over the apples, top with the sliced almonds.

Bake for 25 – 30 minutes until almonds and dough turn golden brown.

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