Aprikosen-Streuselkuchen is a typical summer pastry that we prefer to make with fresh apricots. The apricot is pre-eminently a fruit to use in a cake, because of the heating in combination with the sweet dough, they change from a sometimes somewhat dry and mealy fruit into tasty fruity summer suns. This cake is baked on a baking tin instead of in a cake tin, after which you cut into square pieces. Germany has a rich cake tradition and like everything in the German kitchen it is not only tasty but also a lot, this recipe is good for twenty-four pieces, do you bake with it?
Best with fresh apricots
Of course we can also make this cake in a different season with canned apricots, but we prefer the fresh apricots. Not only for the taste but also for the real summer feeling, by using seasonal fruit we experience the summer much more intensely and we also follow the natural course of things in life here on earth.
Before we get a little too philosophical, first some practical instructions for baking the cake, use a baking tin of about 30 x 40 cm with a depth of 3½ cm. We also use a good apricot jam in this recipe, the sugar from this jam works on the fresh apricots, making them more tender and tasty.
Aprikosen-Streuselkuchen, recipe for German apricot crumble
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Ingredients for the dough:
- 600 grams of sifted flour
- 325 grams of butter
- 275 grams of sugar
- 100 grams of finely chopped almonds
- 1 packet of vanilla-flavored sugar
- pinch of salt
- 1 egg
Ingredients for the filling:
- 250 grams of good apricot jam
- 1.2 to 1.5 kilograms of fresh ripe apricots
- icing sugar for dusting
Preparation of the cake:
- Preheat the oven to 200 ° Celsius and grease the baking tin with butter and dust with some flour
- sieve the flour and grind the almonds well in a blender,
- use a knife to flakes the butter over a large mixing bowl,
- add the sifted flour, the sugar, the finely ground almonds, the vanilla sugar, the salt and the egg,
- mix everything together with dough hooks in the food processor or with the mixer on the lowest setting,
- the result should be sandy and grainy in texture,
- spread about three quarters of this shortcrust pastry over the baking tin and press it onto the bottom of the tin,
- also press it about 2 centimeters high against the edge,
- spread the apricot confiture over the pastry base,
- wash the apricots, cut them in half, remove the stone and spread them over the jam layer,
- sprinkle the rest of the shortcrust pastry over the apricots, rubbing the dough between your fingers,
- bake the cake in 50 minutes at 180 ° Celsius and then let it cool down.
Before serving, sprinkle the cake with icing sugar, cut square pieces and add a dollop of whipped cream.
Apricots, fruits from the Ottoman Empire
Apricots are of course part of the sunny south, but that does not mean that there are also varieties that thrive in our climate. It is not always certain whether it will result in fruit set, apricots already bloom in March, which means that the risk of freezing of the flower buds or the ovaries is quite high and when the rainy weather is during flowering, no insects are active that provide the pollination. For these reasons, an apricot tree does not always bear fruit.
Typical Dutch varieties are De Breda and Tros Oranje, both are of a very old variety, the Breda does not grow quickly, the Tros Oranje, on the other hand, sometimes grows a bit too quickly, which means there is a risk of branch breakage. Both varieties are hardy, the fruits are especially suitable for processing in a cake, for making jam or for preserving in preserving jars.
Source: Ibrahim Rustamov, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-2.5)
Traditionally, the apricot is a fruit from the Ottoman Empire, in the 16th and 17th century the Ottomans planted many large orchards in Hungary. Nowadays the apricots come from Italy and Spain and in part also from Austria and Switzerland. Turkey has the largest share in the world production of dried apricots and apricot kernels, if you break open the hard shell of the apricot kernel, you will find a nut-like fruit in the core that looks a bit like an almond. The sun-dried version is used in the bakery industry and does not contain any dangerous substances, the air-dried version has a controversial alternative medical application against cancer, they are dangerous due to the high cyanide content.
