Dutch Apple Cake

Recipe from my Grandmother, this is a simple 7 ingredient "cake", topped with fresh crisp apples, a dash of cinnamon sugar and baked to perfection! Works equally well as breakfast or dessert.

gluten free dutch apple cake #glutenfree #glutenfreerecipes www.healthygffamily.com
Dutch Apple Cake

Easy, Wholesome, Not too sweet and Delicious!

For My Grandmother’s Apple Crisp, click here

Apple Cinnamon Muffins, click here

Apple Crumble Bars, click here

New! I’ve added a cooking video to this page so you can see how easy it is to make this gluten-free Dutch Apple Cake!

If you’re new to this website, as with all my recipes, there is a printable recipe with exact measurements and directions at the bottom of this page.

Hope you love it!

gluten free dutch apple cake easy recipe www.healthygffamily.com

Original post…

Who else loooves apple season?

My entire family loves crisp Fall apples and aside from eating them, we love baking with them!

And one of the first seasonal things we usually bake is my Grandmother’s Dutch Apple Cake.

You might recognize this tart from the Dutch Peach Cake this Summer. It is the same great recipe from my Grandmother only with apples! She made it all the time switching up the fruit based on the season.

This simple “cake” is not too sweet, bursting with crisp Apples and equally loved as breakfast or dessert.

The beauty of this light “cake” is that the sweetness comes from the fruit, not the cake, so it really highlights seasonal fruit.

gluten free dutch apple cake #glutenfree #glutenfreerecipes www.healthygffamily.com

A note about the apples...

Any apple will work but Granny Smith apples or any kind of baking apple (Cortland’s were particularly good at my farmer’s market this week) will give a nice tart flavor in contrast to the crumble and will hold their form best.

Other apples may lose their form and become more “mushy” when baking.

A note about the name…

As I mentioned when I published the Dutch Peach Cake, we have struggled with the name “Dutch Peach/ Apple Cake” because while my Grandmother always called it a “Dutch Peach/ Apple Cake” but it’s not a cake in the traditional sense.

Let me explain…

It’s a simple 7 ingredient pastry crust (reminiscent of a shortbread crust) that’s low in sugar (only a few tablespoons!) and low in butter (only 1/3 cup) and so yummy.

The pastry dough is gently pressed into the bottom and around the edges of a pie pan or even a rimmed baking sheet.

Then the apples are pressed in to the dough. Topped with a dash of cinnamon sugar and baked to perfection!

And it’s not thickyou can see here, the cake part is thin and you are really tasting the apples!

gluten free dutch apple cake #glutenfree #glutenfreerecipes www.healthygffamily.com

Whatever you name it, you’ll call it a delicious and easy addition to your baking repertoire!

There’s a reason it’s a longtime family favorite!

Let’s take a look at the details.

All you need  is pantry staples and some apples!

gluten free dutch apple cake #glutenfree #glutenfreerecipes www.healthygffamily.com

The cake is made with 7 simple ingredients:

Gluten-Free all purpose flour (we used GF Jules – Affiliate link)

baking powder

salt

sugar

butter

milk

egg

 

gluten free dutch apple cake #glutenfree #glutenfreerecipes www.healthygffamily.com

As an aside, you may have noticed that we are affiliate for GFJules.  To learn more about why we love GFJules flour and why we have used it for 10 years, click here.

Bonus: at the bottom of that post is a one-time use affiliate Discount Code.

And importantly, purchasing through an affiliate link does not change your cost at all. It generates a small percentage of the sale for me, and purchasing through an affiliate link helps me fund this website and all the recipes I share, so thank you!

Back to the Gluten-free Dutch Apple Cake…

gluten free dutch apple cake easy recipe www.healthygffamily.com

It comes together quickly!

All you do is mix together the dry ingredients, add the egg and milk, then the butter.

The dough will be thick but pliable.

So you drop in into the pan and gently press if with your fingers into the pan and around the edges.

Then you press in the apples anyway you like.

I tend to make circular designs but as you can see by all the different photos, they always look different!

gluten free dutch apple cake #glutenfree #glutenfreerecipes www.healthygffamily.com

Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and bake!

gluten free dutch apple cake #glutenfree #glutenfreerecipes www.healthygffamily.com

Hope you love this easy and versatile cake as much as we do!

gluten free dutch apple cake #glutenfree #glutenfreerecipes www.healthygffamily.com

For more apple recipes, have you tried our:

My Grandmother’s Apple Crisp

Apple Cinnamon Muffins

Apple Crumble Bars

Apple Coffee Cake

PIN it!

gluten free dutch apple cake easy recipe www.healthygffamily.com

Scroll down to see the recipe and leave a comment if you try.

Recipe

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Dutch Apple Cake

Recipe from my Grandmother, this is a simple 7 ingredient cake, topped with fresh crisp apples, a dash of cinnamon and sugar and baked to perfection. The beauty of this cake is that it isn't sweet and highlights the fruit of the season. Perfect for breakfast or dessert!
Prep Time20 minutes
Cook Time40 minutes
Total Time1 hour
Course: Breakfast, Dessert, Baking
Cuisine: Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free Optional, Nut-Free
Servings: 8 -10 servings
Author: Healthy Gluten-free Family

Ingredients

  • cups gluten-free flour with xanthan gum I use GF Jules - affiliate link
  • teaspoons gluten-free baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 2 tablespoons + 1½ teaspoons sugar
  • cup butter or dairy free butter, room temperature, cut into pieces
  • cup milk
  • 1 egg
  • Cinnamon & sugar for sprinkling we used a mix of 1 tablespoon sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon, but didn't need it all
  • 3-5 apples (depending on size), peeled and sliced into approximately 1/4 inch slices

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 400 degrees F, and lightly grease a 9 or 10 inch pie pan or ½ sized rimmed baking sheet.
  • In a large bowl add dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt, sugar) and combine with a fork or pastry cutter.
  • Add eggs & milk into the flour mixture and mix to combine. Add butter one piece at a time and mix to combine. Batter will be stiff.
  • NOTE: my grandmother who made this with regular flour (ie gluten) insisted that this dough must be mixed by hand or with a large spoon and that you do not want to over mix. The batter should be rather stiff and only pliable with your hands. I however do everything in a stand mixer and there is no gluten to over mix when baking with gluten-free flour. Feel free to make it either way.
  • Drop batter onto prepared pie pan by spoonfuls, and gently press into the bottom and around the edges of the pan.
  • Press sliced apples into the dough, pushing gently.
  • Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar
  • Bake for 40 minutes, checking at 30 minutes and covering with foil if apples getting to crisp.
Tried this recipe?Mention @HealthyGFFamily or tag #HealthyGFFamily!

9 thoughts on “Dutch Apple Cake

  1. I have a Dutch apple cake recipe that was my Oma‘s. I wanted to make a gluten-free version of it, so I looked for ingredients and measurements as close as possible to my original recipe. This was very close. My Oma‘s recipe is the same except: instead of just sprinkling cinnamon and sugar on top, melt 3 tablespoons of butter, 2 teaspoons of cinnamon and 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg with 3 tablespoons of sugar (I usually double this). Mix it well and then gently spoon/smear over the top of your apples before you put it in the oven. When out of the oven, combine 3 tablespoons of apricot jam with enough warm water to make it a little less “stiff” of a preserve (again, I use more) and spoon it over the hot cake. Divine!

    1. Yes, I did the recipe with coconut sugar and it worked just fine. Only that from what I observed also on other recepies, to give the proper sweetness, I add more coconut sugar than the description for normal sugar says. For instance here, I added 3.5 tablespoons coconut sugar and it was just perfect!

  2. I am just learning about Gluten Free baking. I have a lot of Bob’s Red Mill All Purpose Flour without Xanthan Gum. I found out from other recipes that I needed to add Xanthan Gum. So I now have a lot to that too. Ugh! I see that the ingredients in Bob’s Red Mill flour are slightly different than what is in the flour you recommend. Do you think this recipe will be okay with the Bob’s Red Mill and adding the Xanthan Gum to the flour? Thanks

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