Apple cake with walnuts and amaretti

Torta viennese alle mele
In the annual quest for untried apple recipes, I fell over this cake (with a few adaptation) in the Cucchiaio d’Argento cookbook. It is apparently Austrian by origin, and so good and generous that it deserves to be made over and over again every time apples are in season. Torta di mele e amaretti from Lombardia uses similar ingredients but without the pastry shell, the walnuts and the raisins.

Ingredients

For the pastry
300 g flour
100 g sugar
150 g butter
I grated lemon rind
1 egg
Some egg yolk for brushing

For the filling
5 apples – peeled and cored
50 g raisins
50 g walnuts
50 g sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
10 Amaretti biscuits or macaroons

Preparation

Mix flour, sugar and grated lemon zest with cold butters until it looks like bread crumbles
Add the egg and shape the pastry into a ball
Let it rest while you prepare the filling
Chop apples and walnuts and mix with raisins, sugar, cinnamon and crushed amaretti
Grease a tall-sided springform pan
Roll 2/3 of the pastry out to a circular disc between two sheets of cling film
Remove the cling film from one side and line the pan with pastry before the remaining cling film is removed
Spoon the filling on top
Roll out the remaining pastry and use it to seal the pie
Brush with egg yolk
Bake the apple cake with walnuts and amaretti at 170 C/ 350 F for 45 minutes