Apple Kuchen

Submitted by Sydney

I wanted to share this fabulous recipe for Apple Kuchen. This is the official state dessert of South Dakota. I posted this on my blog, but thought I would post it here, too. It was really pretty easy to make and VERY good. The crust is kind of like lemon bar crust; the middle layer is kind of like homemade cheesecake; and the top layer is like an apple tart. Enjoy!Try this recipe for Apple Kuchen! Official state recipe from South Dakota!

For the crust:
2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cold and cut into pieces

For the filling:
1 pound cream cheese, at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg, at room temperature

For the topping:
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 Granny Smith apples, peeled, if desired, cored, and thinly sliced

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Lightly grease and flour a 9x13-inch pan.Place the flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl or food processor fitted with a steel blade and mix to combine. Add the vanilla and butter, a little at a time. Press into the baking pan and bake in oven until slightly golden but not brown, about 12 to 15 minutes. Cool.

Lower the oven temperature to 400 degrees.

To make the filling: Mix the cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla in mixer (preferably with a paddle) and beat until creamy. Add the egg, mix to combine, an pour over the cooled crust.

Place the sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl and mix to combine.

Place the apples on top of the filling in two or three columns. Sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar and transfer to the oven. Bake until firm and a rich brown, about 20 minutes. Cut into 20 to 24 pieces.Cooking Time: 35 minutes

My notes: I left the apple peel on and it was yummy. I only needed two good sized apples. I used Penzey's Vanilla Sugar instead of Vanilla and it all came out fine. I might recommend using table salt over Kosher salt since a few bites of crust were EXTRA salty... not that there's anything wrong with that. Also, since I didn't have a heavy-duty mixer - just a hand mixer - I ended up having to use a pastry blender to cut in the butter and then smashed it together with my fingers to make the dough. To find out more on how and why this became the state dessert of SD, check out: http://www.shgresources.com/sd/symbols/dessert/.