OK, I freely admit to borrowing this great recipe from another source: The Jolly Tomato (a great blog by Jeanne Fratello out of southern California).

Her Apple Kuchen is the dessert contribution to this week’s on-line virtual dinner party, hosted by several family food blogs to commemorate Food Day (October 24th). I love the idea of a progressive dinner party online, as it embodies so many of the positive aspects of the foodie movement: created shared communities around local food cultures. I hope this becomes a yearly tradition!

So, thanks for sharing Jeanne! 🙂

Apple-Cranberry Kuchen

For the crust:
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup oat flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 T. sugar (you can substitute turbinado sugar or brown sugar if you are staying unprocessed)
1/2 cup butter
1 egg
1 T. milk

Topping:

3 to 4 large, crisp apples, quartered, peeled, and sliced
1/3 cup fresh whole cranberries
1/2 cup brown (turbinado) sugar
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1 T. butter

Preheat the oven to 350. Begin by making the crust: Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Add sugar and mix. Using a pastry blender (see picture), cut in the butter until the mixture is evenly crumbly. Combine the egg and milk and add to the dry mixture, stirring until a soft dough forms. Press dough on the bottom of a greased 9-inch pie plate.

Arrange fruit slices on top of the dough. Prepare the topping by mixing sugar, flour, and cinnamon, and again cutting in the butter using a pastry blender until the mixture forms coarse crumbs. Sprinkle the topping over the fruit. Bake for 50 minutes, or until apples are soft when pricked with a fork.

Jeanne says to serve it warm with ice cream, if desired (but she likes it best on its own, and I think I would too). Serves 8.

Bon Appetit!

ps Kuchen, in case you were wondering, means cake (or cookie) in German. (Just thought I’d clarify because in Dutch, my heritage language, it means “cough” or “hack”!).