Apple and pastry cream cake

Apple cake with a butter-enriched dough base, pastry cream, and a brown sugar finish. The dough and cream must be prepared the day before.
baked
cake
dessert
vegetarian

Yield: 1 25 cm diameter cake

Ingredients
Servings
1
Measurement units

Ingredients for the enriched dough

  • 200 gsourdough starter
  • 500 gsoft flour
  • 125 mlliquid cooking cream
  • 3 eggsegg
  • 175 gbutter
  • 125 gwhite sugar
  • 2 and 1/2 teaspoonsfresh pressed Paris yeast
  • a pinch salt

Ingredients for the pastry cream

  • 4 egg yolksegg yolk
  • 500 mlwhole milk
  • 90 gsugar
  • 20 gsoft flour
  • 20 gcornstarch
  • 1 lemonlemon peel
  • 1/2 stickcinnamon

Ingredients for the cake

  • 6 applesapple
  • 450 gbutter-enriched dough
  • 700 gpastry cream
  • 200 gbutter
  • 100 gbrown cane sugar
Nutritional Information

Per 100 g

Calories
238 kcal
Protein
4.3 g
Fat
11.6 g
Carbohydrates
29.8 g

Calculated from reviewed ingredient weights and pinned USDA FoodData Central records.

Step-by-step Guide

Prepare the enriched dough

  1. The dough must be prepared the day before.
  2. Separate the whites from the yolks of 2 eggs.
  3. Beat the whole egg, the yolks, one tablespoon of sugar, and the fresh yeast.
  4. In another bowl, mix all the ingredients except the butter and knead them lightly.
  5. Leave the dough to rest, covered, for 15 minutes.
  6. Cut the butter into thin slices and let it soften.
  7. Grease the work surface with a little oil and place the dough on it.
  8. Distribute the butter slices over the dough and knead it for 5 minutes, until the butter is incorporated and you obtain a smooth dough.
  9. Form the dough into a ball and place it in a large bowl, lightly greased with oil and with enough room for it to rise; cover it and leave it in the refrigerator until the next day, for a minimum of 18 hours.

Prepare the pastry cream

  1. The cream must be prepared the day before.
  2. Dissolve the starch and sifted flour in a little cold milk and set the mixture aside.
  3. Heat the milk with the lemon peel and cinnamon stick in a saucepan until it comes to a boil.
  4. When it comes to a boil, remove the saucepan from the heat and, when it stops bubbling, return it to the heat until it comes to a boil; repeat until it has come to a boil 3 times.
  5. Separate the yolks from the whites.
  6. Beat the yolks with the sugar in a bowl.
  7. Add the little cold milk with the starch and sifted flour, and stir.
  8. Remove the cinnamon stick and lemon peel from the milk, and pour it, still hot, into the bowl of yolks without stopping stirring.
  9. Pass the mixture through a chinois strainer into a saucepan and cook it over very low heat, stirring constantly with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon, until it reaches the desired consistency.
  10. The cream must not exceed 82ºC and must not come to a boil.
  11. When it has thickened to the desired consistency, remove it from the heat and let it cool.

Prepare the cake

  1. Line a 25 cm diameter springform pan with baking paper and grease it with butter.
  2. Peel the apples, remove the cores, and cut them into thin rounds.
  3. Divide the rounds into three portions and reserve the prettiest ones for the final layer.
  4. Divide the enriched dough into three portions of the same weight, about 150 g each.
  5. Flour the work surface and roll out the portions until they are approximately the shape of the pan.
  6. Trim them to the inner size of the pan.
  7. Place one piece of dough in the pan and put 1/3 of the pastry cream on top.
  8. Cover the pastry cream with 1/3 of the apple rounds and a little brown sugar on top.
  9. Repeat the layers of cream, apple rounds, and brown sugar.
  10. Leave the cake to rest, covered, for 90 minutes.
  11. When there is half an hour left before baking, check that the rack is in the middle of the oven and preheat it to 200ºC; place the pan on a rack and not on the baking tray.
  12. Bake at 200ºC for 10 minutes.
  13. Lower the oven to 170ºC and continue baking for another 35 minutes; if it browns too much, cover the cake with aluminum foil.
  14. Let it cool slightly on a rack and unmold it.
  15. Serve warm.
Recommendations & Tricks
  • The butter-enriched dough base must be prepared the day before.
  • There are 200 g of butter at room temperature in the cake ingredient list, but the preparation text does not specify its use; it is retained as a source ingredient with ambiguous use.
  • The cream must not exceed 82ºC and must not come to a boil.
  • If it browns too much, cover the cake with aluminum foil.
Original recipe
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    Apple and pastry cream cake | The Catalan Table