Awesome apple pie with marzipan and a hazelnutty caramel topping

A couple of weekends ago, I went to my Dad’s house in Sweden with my brother and my aunt. It was a wonderful weekend of fabulous food, wine and walks. The weather was cold and grey, and Saturday afternoon I decided to make this apple pie, that I had been wanting to make for a while. And I did not regret it; it was amazing! The cinnamony apple filling, the delicious marzipan and the crunchy caramel topping was a big hit, and I will surely be making it again!

My Dad’s apple trees were nearing the end of the season, so I used different sorts of apples that were pretty much past their prime, but it worked out great anyhow. It was a pleasure to pick the last apples on the trees, and to make something so delicious out of them.

This pie has several stages and takes a while to put together, but it isn’t hard to do at all and it is totally worth the time. It is a big and heavy one too, so I would say it serves about 10. The original recipe, I hear, is in a book by Mette Blomsterberg (I don’t know which one ), but I found the recipe here.  Here it goes!

The crust:

400 g./15 oz. flour

100 g./3,5 oz. soft butter

1 dl./0,4 cups milk

A Teaspoon powdered sugar

A pinch of salt

Mix 2/3 of the flour with the rest of the ingredients, and use your fingers to combine. It takes a little while to make a smooth dough, but don’t worry; it will happen. Add more flour as you go, and if it is too dry, add a couple drops of cold water. When you have made a smooth ball of dough, put it in the fridge for about an hour. While the dough is resting, you can prepare the fillings.

The apple filling:

10 small apples

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1 tablespoon sugar

Wash and core the apples, and then get your little brother to cut them into slices of about 1 cm./0,5 inch. Mix the apple slices with the cinnamon and sugar and set aside.

The marzipan-mix:

75 g./2,5 oz. soft butter

150 g./5,5 oz. marzipan

75 g./2,5 oz. sugar

2 eggs

Mix the marzipan with the sugar using either your hands or a mixer. Add the soft butter until smooth. Then add the eggs one at a time and mix again.

Now lets put it together (we’ll make the caramel topping afterwards):

Roll the dough to make it fit your high-edged pie dish. Add the sugar/cinnamon coated apples. Then add the marzipan and distribute evenly. Bake it in a 175C/350F hot oven, for 45 minutes.

Now lets make the caramel topping:

100 g./3,5 oz. chopped hazelnuts

75 g./2,5 oz. sugar

50 g./1,8 oz. butter

A teaspoon honey

0,5 dl./0,2 cups heavy cream

When the 45 minutes are up, you can make the caramel. Crank up the oven heat to 185C/265F and put a casserole on the stove over medium heat. Heat up the sugar, butter, honey and cream until it bubbles and has a golden color. It took me about 10 minutes. Take it off the heat and add the hazelnuts. Spread the caramel over the cake, and bake it again for 10 minutes, or until it looks something like this:

And then finally, after all the work, it is ready to be eaten.

It is great as it is, but some full fat sour cream mixed with a little vanilla, some vanilla ice cream or whipped cream would take it all the way to amazing! I chose sour cream.

And then all you need is a good cup of coffee to make the perfect afternoon. Enjoy!