Russian Grandmother's Apple Pie Cake

This week, in honor of Thanksgiving, Tuesdays With Dorie has loosened up the rules. Rather than an assigned recipe; this week members are free to "rewind" a previously-selected recipe that they might have missed. There's also leeway in posting so you'll see TWD posts on various blogs all the way up to Friday. I'm going to post now because my rewind is the Russian Grandmothers' Apple Pie Cake, and it's a good candidate for Thanksgiving baking if you want something just a smidge out of the ordinary.

n.o.e.'s notes:

- You can find the recipe for this apple dessert on the blog post of TWD founder Laurie. It was chosen for the group way back in March of 2008.

- Before I baked this, I checked out the experience of the TWD bakers, such as my friend Di (here's her post), and I learned that the filling tended to be dry and the crust browned quickly. Since I was baking my pie/cake in a dark silicone loaf pan and was using a new-to-me oven I reduced temperature to 350 degrees

- I wanted to make sure that the filling was cooked by the time the crust was browned, so I precooked the apples with the sugar and cinnamon on top of the stove for 5 or 10 minutes before putting it in the crust.

- In making the crust, Dorie gives an approximate measure of flour, allowing an extra 1/4 cup to be added as needed. I didn't use the extra, as the texture seemed soft but still doughy without it. The dough was very soft, and with so much butter it warmed up quickly

- I totally forgot to add the raisins, which were measured and sitting on the counter. Right as I was closing the oven door I saw the raisins but I wasn't going to disassemble the pie/cake to add them.

- My pie/cake stayed in the oven for about 50 minutes, at which point it was a lovely golden brown.


the verdict:

This was an unusual dessert, but very appealing. The crust was a fairly thin layer like a pie, but soft like a cake. The apples were tender and sweetly spiced. All of the juices that accumulated when I precooked the apples were absorbed by the soft crust as it baked.

A scoop of vanilla ice cream made the ideal accompaniment (as it usually does with anything apple). My husband, the apple-dessert aficionado, was a big fan of this pie/cake and thought it was fine without the raisins.