SIDY LOWENTHAL'S
APPLE CAKE

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 t. salt
1 large egg (save shell)
1 t. baking powder
1/2 eggshell milk (about 3-5 tsp.)
Cinnamon to taste
Sugar, optional
Flour, start with 1 cup
3 cups peeled and sliced apples (preferably
Macintosh) for filling

Dorie Shwedel shows off
her apple cake

creative measurem ts.

Pr

his is the exact recipe as dictated to
me by my mother, Sidy
Lowenthal, who baked this
superbly simple dessert for Rosh
Hashana and breaking the fast on Yom Kippur.
It is the perfect ending to a huge holiday
dinner — never too heavy or too sweet.
You can figure on adding 2 cups of flour,
maybe more, until the ball of dough forms. I
left the recipe as my mother dictated because
this is the way she cooked. It drives some
people crazy not to have exact measurements,
but my mother was a creative cook and the
ingredients often depended upon what was
on hand and when she was in the mood.
I associate this always-delicious apple cake
with brisk fall days, when apples first
appeared at the market. My mother would
bake early in the morning, and I remember
coming home from elementary school,
recognizing that singular cinnamon-y
aroma, and searching for an odd-shaped
piece of overhanging crust that I could
surreptitiously tear off. Of course, my sisters
had the same idea and my mother sought
ever higher hiding places.
It gives me a special feeling to be the apple
cake maker in my family because the cake
has become such an important part of our
own Jewish Holiday history. Now my great-

nieces and nephews look forward to coming
to my house for my mother's apple cake.
I think of my mother often, and when I
bake this cake, I remember her peeling
apples in one long strip with an ancient,
seriously worn paring knife that cut the
thinnest peel. I never mastered that trick.
My mother baked many apple cakes, and
streusel cakes, and challas. She cooked a
million meals, I guess, and they were all
special. They were her offerings, her
unspoken messages of love.
Following are the ingredients as dictated
by my mother, Sidy Lowenthal, nee Meier,
who passed away in
June 1985, and who
lives in my heart
and my
cooking. Li

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine butter,
sugar, salt, egg, baking powder in food
processor in order given. Process to combine.
Add enough flour and pulse until it makes
good dough that's not
too hard, but just
until the dough forms
a ball on top of the
blade in the processor.
Save 1/4 of the
dough for the top
crust. Roll out
remaining dough on a
floured surface and
place in a greased 9-
or 10-inch
springform pan,
pressing the dough up
the sides of the pan.
Place apples into
the pastry shell.
Sprinkle with cinnamon. Add a little sugar
only if the apples are exceptionally tart, as the
sugar will make the apples watery. Roll out
remaining dough and carefully place it on top
of the apples.
Press edges of the dough together tightly.
The cake is supposed to look bumpy. Bake 15
minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees and
continue baking for 30 to 45 minutes — until
the crust is nicely browned. Let cool before
removing the sides of the pan
and serving. Makes about
8-12 servings.

Dorie
Shwedel
of Franklin

JN • SOURCEBOOK

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