Lazy Apple Pie or “Lenja Pita” in Serbian, is one of the most popular traditional desserts in Serbia. It is one of those common desserts, that can easily be found displayed daily, at many of the local bakeries, together with fresh bread. Serbs are in love with their baked goods. City of Nis for example, with population of about 200,000, has well over 150 bakeries, many operating 24 hours.
However, the recipe I am presenting today is a bit different from the traditional one. This recipe has no fat of any kind, no dairy, no eggs and no added liquids!?? I know, that is what I thought when at first I looked at it. Truthfully, I was very suspicious and was convinced that the recipe was incomplete, that something was missing.
Nevertheless, the ingredient list perfectly suited the purpose I intended the cake for, St. Nicholas day, our family Slava. Reluctantly I proceeded with the recipe an at the each step was shaking my head and asking myself: what am I doing? I spread the layer of powdery mix of flour, sugar, baking powder and cream of wheat across the bottom of non greased baking pan? How is that going to work? Without any liquid at least, how is this going to miraculously turn into a baked biscuit? Well, I simply decided to ignore any of those questions that where crossing my mind and followed the recipe to the T. Funny enough even after I took a cake out of oven, to me did not look much different from when I put in the oven. Dry powdery mixture looked untainted, on top of the cake.
I covered the baking pan with kitchen towel, as recipe called for and went to bed, convinced that the cake will end up in a garbage can.
Tomorrow morning I cut the cake, and tasted it. Wow! That was an amazingly tasty apple pie! I just did not know what happened here? It was so moist, aromatic and with an amazing mouthful, soft texture. Apple flavor with strong cinnamon undertone was so delicious, shockingly delicious. As someone who is life long admirer of apple pies, above all other desserts, I can say this was one of the best. Apples, apples, apples, you simply just could not shake that off your mind! It was addictively delicious!
Everybody loved the cake and many of our guests helped themselves more than once. Admittedly unexpected but without a doubt, a recipe to remember!
The recipe has been adapted from “Ko to tamo…” food blog.
| Prep Time | 30 minutes |
| Cook Time | 40 minutes |
| Servings |
pieces
|
- 2 cup all purpose non bleached flour
- 2 cup cream of wheat
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 15 g vanilla sugar
- 15 g baking powder
- 1.5 kg tart apples peeled, cored and grated
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 15 g vanilla sugar
- 1 organic lemon zest
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- confectioner's sugar for dusting
Ingredients
Cake Layer
Filling
Garnish
|
|
- Peel, core and grate the apples. Stir in cinnamon, sugar, vanilla sugar and lemon zest. Set aside.
- Position the rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 200°C (392ºF).
- Mix all the cake layer dry ingredients in a medium size mixing bowl. Set aside about 1 cup of prepared mixture.
- Divide remaining dry ingredient mixture. Spread evenly 1/2 of the mixture on the bottom of 320 mm x 228 mm x 50 mm (13"x 9" x 2") baking pan.
- Divide grated apple mixture. Spread evenly 1/2 of the apple mixture in the baking pan, topping the dry ingredient layer.
- Spread evenly second layer of dry ingredient mixture.
- Top it up with second layer of apple mixture.
- Sprinkle the top with the dry ingredient mixture preserved in the cup. Set aside for 15 minutes.
- Bake for 40 minutes. Dust with confectioner's sugar, cover the baking pan with kitchen towel (very important!!) and let cool completely, the best if left overnight.
- Cut the cake into 50 mm x 38 mm (2" x 1 1/2") pieces and serve dusted with confectioner's sugar.
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