Apple Pie Cake (or Crisp?)

Last weekend my mom came to visit and for her birthday I decided to find an apple desert recipe to use up the apples we were given a few days earlier. I found this recipe on Martha Stewart that used a bunch of apples, was easy but still looked yummy. Only 6 ingredients and only 4 steps. I love recipes like this.

The dish is called "Apple Pie Cake," but I would rename it Apple Pie Crisp. Take a look at the recipe and the pictures and see if you don't agree.

Apple Pie Cake

5 pounds tart apples (about 12), peeled, cored, and thinly sliced

2 cups flour
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup unsalted butter, chilled
2 tsp. cinnamon
2 Tbs. lemon juice

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Toss apples in a bowl with 1 tsp. cinnamon and lemon juice.

2. In a large bowl combine flour, brown sugar, and remaining teaspoon of cinnamon. Using a pastry cutter, cut butter into flour mixture until it forms pea-sized pieces. Press 2/3 of the flour/butter mixture into the bottom of and 1 inch up the sides of 9-inch springform pan.

3. Arrange apples in the prepared pan, they will come up over the sides of the pan. Sprinkle the remaining crumb mixture on top of the apples and gently press down.

4. Place pan on a baking sheet and bake until cooked through and golden brown on top, about 1 hour and 15 minutes. Let cake cool in the pan for 30 minutes, then run a knife around the edges to remove the side of the pan. Serve warm or refrigerate for 2 hours to set more firmly.

So, the entire thing took me about 30 minutes to put together, but 20 minutes of that was peeling and slicing apples. The recipe was very simple. Although I added a few more spices (nutmeg and ground ginger) to give it more than just cinnamon flavor.

A couple of tips:

You can do step 2 in your food processor to save even more time.

You should cover either the bottom of the springform pan or the baking sheet with aluminum foil. Like all apple pies, it gets juicy and could be hard to clean up afterwards.

The only thing that might need some improvement is the bottom crust. It was a little soggy, so I might experiment baking the crust by itself a little before adding the filling.