Szarlotka -Polish Apple Pie

A Polish classic and my sister's favorite cake. It's so popular in my country, you will find it in absolutely every traditional restaurant (and most of the bakeries). Tastes the best with vanilla ice cream on the side, still warm. It's so hard to resists, as it's smells of baked apples, butter and cinnamon. I actually had no idea I will find Szarlotka's recipes on foreign websites, but I have, which made me really happy! I won't lie to you -the  longer I'm living in London, more I appreciate those simple traditional Eastern-European flavors, which bring back memories and feel so good seeing people appreciate it too! This amazing recipe comes from the book " "Słodkie", which is the first publication of most popular Polish food blog "White Plate .
So bake it, taste it and love it, because Szalotka will stay in your memory for long, long time. 

Szarlotka-Polish Apple Pie 

(makes 8 portions)

Pastry

300 g white flour

150 g softened butter

3 egg yolks

100 g sugar

80 g double cream

1/2 spoon baking soda

Apples

1 kg apples

100 g sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon 

1 tsp vanilla extract 

Preheat the oven to 180°C. In the mixing bowl, combine all dough ingredients, and mix it till smooth. Of course, if you don't have a stand mixer, it's not a problem. You can kneed your dough by hand, it will just take more time. 

When ready, divide into 2 parts, and leave it in the fridge.

Peel the apples and slice into wedges. In a larger pan, melt 2 spoons of butter, add the apples. Leave it to fry for couple of minutes. Make sure you give it a stir from time to time- we don't want our apples to burn or stick to the bottom of the pan.

When soften, add sugar, cinnamon and vanilla extract. Keep it over the heat until apples are super soft and start to break down.

Grease the springform tin or tart tin with butter and sprinkle with flour. Line the base of it with one part of the dough. Use fork to poke little holes all over the top of the pastry- that will prevent shrinkage and puffiness, it also allows steam to escape. 

Bake for 10 minutes, in previously preheated oven.

Remove from the oven, and spread the apples all over it. Crumble the rest of the dough on the top of the fruits, and bake for another 40 minutes. Leave Szarlotka to cool a bit, sprinkle with icing sugar, or serve still hot with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream !

Delicious!