Autumn is a fertile time, it pleases us with abundance and rich harvest. And a rich harvest of apples causes especially pleasant emotions. After all, from them you can cook a lot of delicious second courses, appetizers, sauces, ketchups, and, of course, desserts.
If you happen to be so lucky that you have a rich harvest of apples, and all of your traditional recipes for dishes with these fruits have already been tried, you can offer a simple and tasty dessert called Bulgarian Apple Pie. How nice it is, while sitting with a cup of strong tea, to treat guests or pamper your home with delicious and fragrant pastries, which are also simple and quick to prepare.
With the world of apple pie
Apple pie is a very common dessert all over the world. Due to the fact that aromatic fruits are perfectly stored for several months, dishes from them can be prepared in the cold season, providing our body with vitamins, fiber and minerals.
Almost every country where this juicy healthy fruit grows has its own unique sweet recipe from dough and apples. Charlotte is one of the most famous apple pies, very beloved in our country, although France is its homeland. Initially, the process of making charlotte took several hours and included products such as liquor, other fruits besides apples, and cream. Now the main French apple pie is a pie called "tart taten", filled with caramel syrup.
And in Austria, Germany and some countries of Eastern Europe they love apple strudel. It is made from exhaust dough, stuffed with chopped apples, and when serving, add berry sauce and icing sugar.
In the UK, they prepare such a dessert as apple crumble - baked pudding with apples and crumbs from shortcrust pastry. In America you will be fed an apple pie, it has a lot of fruit filling, and it is served with a scoop of ice cream.
“Warsaw” or “Bulgarian”
But the pie, which will be discussed today, is often called both Bulgarian and Warsaw. But no matter how the name may sound, this bulk apple pie is easy to bake, and you will definitely like its taste.
Bulgarian apple pie is called bulk because of the cooking technology - one layer is “poured onto another”, there is no kneading process here. In this he is amazing and interesting. The whole process of miraculously transforming “dry” and “wet” ingredients into tasty, melt cake layers in the mouth takes place in the oven.
Products
In order to prepare a magical Bulgarian bulk apple pie, you will need the following products:
- apples (juicy variety with sourness) - 4-5 pieces or 0.5 kg;
- premium flour - 0.5 cups;
- semolina - 0.5 cups;
- sugar - 0.5 cups;
- baking powder for dough - 0.5 teaspoon;
- butter or margarine (previously it needs to be cooled in the freezer) - 50 grams;
- cinnamon - a pinch, or to taste (you can also without it, if you do not like cinnamon);
- milk - 50 ml.
If you have a large family, or you are waiting for a lot of guests, you can double the portions of the ingredients.
Cooking
Apples are my standard, we clean the core with seeds. If the apples have a dense peel, it is also better to get rid of it. The fruits need to be grated. Little secret: if you gently sprinkle grated apples with lemon juice immediately, they will not darken.
Also on a grater you need to grate butter or margarine. It is most convenient to rub the oil, after holding it in the freezer for about 30 minutes.
Then in a large bowl very carefully mix all the dry ingredients - semolina, flour, baking powder, sugar and cinnamon.
We take the form in which the Bulgarian apple pie will be baked, cover it with parchment and sprinkle with half the grated butter. First we spread about a third of the dry mixture or in a layer of 2-3 cm. Then comes a layer of wonderful aromatic apple mass, if the apples are not “wet” enough, you need to add a little sugar syrup or apple juice to them. Fruit mass also needs to be taken about 1/3.
The next layer is again a dry mixture. The optimal number of layers is 3 apple and 4 dry; to complete the Bulgarian apple pie with semolina is necessary to necessarily a dry layer.
Baking
Before baking, you need to make through holes in the pie with a knife or wooden stick to the first layer. Pour evenly with hot milk, once again piercing the holes to make sure that milk has penetrated into all places of the pie. The more often there are holes in the cake, the less there will be baked places. Then sprinkle with the remaining grated butter or margarine.
We put the Bulgarian apple pie with semolina in the oven preheated to 180 degrees. The optimal baking time is 50-60 minutes. For the formation of a beautiful, crispy, caramel crust, 15 minutes before the end of baking, Bulgarian apple pie can be sprinkled with sugar. The cake will keep its shape perfectly, if you let it cool slightly and cut it, it is also better slightly warm.
When serving, you can sprinkle the finished cake with powdered sugar, add whipped cream and garnish with a sprig of mint.
Bulgarian apple pie: a recipe for vegetarians
As you know, during Lent, you can not eat food of animal origin, including milk and butter. Also, if you are a supporter of vegetarianism or even stricter veganism, and you should not eat dairy products, milk can be easily replaced with coconut or almond butter in the recipe for Bulgarian apple pie, with margarine on vegetable fats (since margarine is required just a little bit, he will not cause harm to health).
If almond or coconut milk is not in your refrigerator, you can simply mix 50 to 50 hot water and any odorless vegetable oil. This liquid will also be required in an amount of 50 ml per the above volume of other products.
Cooking in a slow cooker
And also, if for some reason you don’t have the opportunity to use the oven, you can also cook a wonderful bulk cake in a slow cooker. This is another recipe for a Bulgarian apple pie (with photo). The cooking process, in general, is the same - we cook food as usual.
In a separate bowl, apple mixture and a mixture of dry ingredients. Then you need to grease the multicooker bowl with margarine or butter. We distribute the first layer of the dry mixture to the bottom of the bowl, then the apple layer and so on, the last layer should be a flour with semolina. Again, do not forget to make holes as often as possible and depth to the very bottom.
We lay the bowl, set the “Baking” mode and the time is 50 minutes. After the final signal, do not open the multicooker, but let the pie rest for 10-15 minutes.
Guests or homemade guests who have tasted Bulgarian apple pie cooked both in the oven and in the slow cooker will leave excellent reviews! And you will spend a minimum of effort on the preparation of this dessert.
Classic in variations
The classic Bulgarian apple cake with semolina, the recipe of which is described above, can be varied with various additives. Adding a special piquancy, citrus aroma and light bitterness will be the addition of lemon zest to the apple mass.
The taste of nutmeg goes well with apples. If you add a pinch of ground nutmeg to the dry mixture, the cake will acquire a delicate, refined aroma.
Any nuts that you like - walnuts, cedar, cashews, peanuts, almonds, roasted sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds are perfect as a delicious addition to the filling. You need a few nuts - a small handful will be enough.
You can also add to the apple mass and a handful of dried fruits - prunes, raisins, dried apricots, dried cherries or candied fruits. Just do not forget the rule - “dry” ingredients to dry, “wet” - to wet.
The flight of imagination here is almost unlimited, and every time you can enjoy the new taste of your favorite cake. This recipe is often called "lazy," because it is easy to prepare (especially if you use a slow cooker). In addition, the whole process does not take much time, and as a result, the dessert turns out to be very, very tasty.