Gedeckter Apfelkuchen (covered apple cake)

This apple cake is a very traditional German apple cake. It consist of a dough that covers the apple filling in the middle, hence its name, and is a little reminiscent of an apple pie. The amount described here is enough for an entire baking sheet or for two 26 cm springform cakes.

Ingredients:

26 cm (9 inch) springform or baking sheet

Cake dough:
400 g flour
4 flattened teaspoons baking powder
70 g sugar
1 package vanilla sugar or some vanilla aroma
2 eggs (optional)
4 tablespoons milk or more if no eggs are used.
150 g soft butter

Filling:
1.5 kg apple
50 g sugar (optional, depending on the kind of apples you use)
1 package vanilla sugar or some vanilla aroma
1 dash ground cinnamon
30 g raisins
50 g butter
50 g sugar (optional)
Some apple sauce (optional)

Topping:
Some powdered sugar
water

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius (375 F). Grease bottom and sides of springform.
2. For the filling, peel apples, cut into quarters, core, and cut into smaller pieces. Add all ingredients for the filling into a pot, and mix. Add a little water, and while stirring cook apple filling at medium temperature until apples are soft. Let cool down, and add more sugar to taste if needed.
3. For the dough, mix flour and baking powder. Add all other ingredients and mix with hand mixer (knead hooks) until a soft dough has formed. Briefly knead dough to a ball with hands, and let cool in refrigerator for about 30 min.
4. Take about 1/3 of the dough and line bottom of springform. Take another 1/3 of the dough and form a long coil. Line the edge of springform with coil. Using a knife or a finger connect the dough on the springform bottom with coil and form the crust's edge.
5. Add apple filling to springform. Using a rolling pin, flatten the remaining 1/3 of dough. Take flattened dough and cover apple filling. Using a knife connect the dough on the springform edge with cover.
6. Punch a few holes into top cover with a fork. Bake cake for about 25 min on a rack in the lower half of the oven.
7. Let cake cool down briefly. While still warm, glaze cake with some powdered sugar icing.

Comments:
1. There are some people who are allergic to eggs, but baking without eggs can be challenging. However, for this cake dough eggs are not required. Instead of eggs add a little bit of milk or half-and-half. If no eggs are used the dough is actually easier to work with. It is softer and less likely to crumble because of the heat from your hands.
2. I didn't have enough apples, so I supplemented the filling with some apple sauce. Because apple sauce is very moist and can make the bottom crust soggy, I first added the apple filling into the springform, then topped it of with apple sauce using the sauce to create a smooth surface.
3. I used Gala apples. Those are naturally very sweet apples. Together with the apple sauce I used there was no need for any sugar for the filling.