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Piece of Grandma Ethel's Apple Cake like pie

Grandma Ethel's Apple Cake Like Pie

This apple cake like pie is the best of both worlds. Great filling and a crust that is more cakey than a pie, while providing a nice balance to the filling. An altogether wonderful comfort food snack or dessert. 

Course Dessert
Cuisine American, Jewish
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 40 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 10 minutes
Servings 12 servings
Author Laura

Ingredients

Crust

  • 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour + extra for pan and flouring mat/paper
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened (Grandma Ethel used Crisco or margarine) and cut into 8-10 chunks I/4 pound or 1 stick
  • 2 eggs, well beaten
  • 2 tablespoons orange juice + slightly more if required

Filling

  • 4 pounds apples, Macintosh or similar Macintosh or other soft variety, not the typical pie apples, which are harder and retain their shape during cooking.
  • 1/2 cup sugar (or more, to taste)
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Topping

  • Additional cinnamon and sugar for sprinkling on the top

Instructions

Crust

  1. Sift or whisk together the flour, baking powder, and sugar in a medium bowl. 

    whisking dry ingredients together for dough
  2. Add the butter, eggs, and orange juice. Mix the ingredients, first with a fork, then with your lightly floured hands, just until they come together as dough. If they are too dry to hold together, add another tablespoon or so of juice. If the dough is too soft, add a bit of flour.
    adding butter and eggs to dough
  3. Divide the dough in half, form each half into a disk, wrap them in plastic wrap, and refrigerate the disks while you make the filling.
  4. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Dust the pan with flour (don’t grease it with butter or oil) and set aside.

Filling

  1. Mix the sugar and cinnamon in the small bowl. Peel, core, and slice the apples. 
  2. Put the apple slices in the large bowl, add the cinnamon and sugar, and mix them until all the slices are covered. 
    apple slices for filling

Putting cake together

  1. Take one dough disk out of the refrigerator once it is chilled (45 minutes to an hour chilling time is sufficient) and roll it on a lightly floured mat or piece of waxed paper into a rectangle slightly larger than the 9 x 13-inch pan, about 10 x 14-inches. Gently lift the dough into the pan with the ends coming up the sides of the pan. Folding the dough about in half works, as long as you are gentle when moving it. 
    putting first half of dough into pan
  2. Add the apple slices on top of the dough.
    Adding apple slices to dough-lined pan

  3. Take out the second dough disk and roll it out to just over 9 x 13-inches. Place it over the apples, tuck in the sides, and poke a few air holes with the knife. The top will be bumpy and the sides don't have to be pretty. As I said, like the best grandmas, this is a forgiving cake. Sprinkle cinnamon and sugar on the top. 

    putting dough on top of cake

  4. After I took the middle photo, I decided that my topping didn't have enough cinnamon, so I added more cinnamon (with less sugar this time) on top. Again, this is not an exacting process. Bake for 50 - 60 minutes, until the top is golden and the juices are bubbling.

    adding more cinnamon to the top of the cake before baking
  5. Cool the apple cake on a wire rack to barely warm or cool before cutting pieces in the pan.
    cooling the cake before cutting

Recipe Notes

I love my apple corer – it’s sturdy and does the job so quickly (even when I slice the thick slices in half or thirds) but you can easily cut the apple slices for the filling with just a peeler and knife.

apple being sliced

The apple slices bake into a soft, golden compote-like filling inside the cake, so there is no need to sprinkle lemon juice as a precaution to prevent them browning.