Æblekage - Danish apple trifle - Caroline's Cooking

5 from 3 votes

Æblekage - Danish apple trifle

This old-fashioned Danish apple dessert is an easy and delicious combination of sweet apple and crunchy crumb layers, topped with cream.

Prep Time10

Cook Time10

Total Time20

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Danish

Servings:

Calories: 445kcal

Author: Caroline's Cooking

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Ingredients

For apple sauce

1 lb apples approx 2, see notes
1 teaspoon lemon juice
¼ vanilla pod (or larger piece if small)
2 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoon water

For toasted crumbs

2 tablespoon butter
2 oz toasted breadcrumbs plain, unseasoned (2oz is approx ⅔ cup)
2 tablespoon sugar

To serve

3 tablespoon whipped cream or more, to taste

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Peel the apples, remove the core and dice the apples into relatively small pieces. As you go, place the apple pieces in a pot/pan and drizzle with a little lemon juice. Toss to coat and help keep them from browning too much. Repeat with peeling, removing core and chopping rest of apples.
Split the vanilla pod along one side to open then scrape out the seeds and add them to the pot with the apples. Add the sugar and water to the pot as well then place over a medium heat.
Warm the apples and stir now and then to help dissolve the sugar. Once the mixture has come to a simmer, cover, reduce the heat and leave to cook for around 5 - 10 minutes until the apples have softened. The exact time will depend on the apples and size of chunk so check every few minutes.
Once the apples are soft, mash them to give you a coarse apple sauce. Once the mixture is relatively smooth, remove from the heat and allow to cool. You can make the apples ahead of time.
For the crumbs, melt the butter in a skillet over a medium heat and once melted, add the breadcrumbs and sugar. Cook for a couple minutes, stirring regularly, so that everything is well mixed. The crumbs should be crisp but take care that they don't burn. Remove from heat.
To assemble, make a layer of crumbs at the bottom of two serving glasses, then add a layer of apples, more crumbs, more apples, then a final drizzle of crumbs. Try to smooth out the layers as you go so they are relatively even. Top with a dollop of whipped cream and serve.

Video

Notes

As mentioned above, I suggest a mixture of a sweet-tart apple and a more tart cooking apple to get a balance of flavor and not be too sweet, so for example part Granny Smith/Bramley and part Cox/Fuji/Gala/Honeycrisp/Pink Lady. If using sweeter apples, you may not need as much sugar.

Nutrition