Skip to main content
Dessert

Dutch Apple Cake

A yeast-based apple cake with butter, sugar, and currants, baked at 350°F.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Dutch Apple Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. Mix scalded milk, butter, sugar, and salt until lukewarm.

  2. Add yeast cake, eggs, and enough flour to make a soft dough.

  3. Beat thoroughly, cover, and let rise until doubled in bulk.

  4. Beat again and let rise once more.

Shape and bake

  1. Spread dough thinly in a well-buttered pan and brush with melted butter.

  2. Press sliced apples into the dough in even rows.

  3. Sprinkle with sugar mixed with cinnamon and currants.

  4. Cover and let rise, then bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 30 minutes.

  5. Cut into squares and serve plain or with whipped cream.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Yeast cake
Produces gas that makes the dough rise and become light and airy.
Eggs
Add richness and structure to the soft dough as it sets in the oven.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and richness, and browns the crust.
Flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the soft dough its structure.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the topping caramelize lightly while baking.

The step that matters

Let the dough rise until doubled. Yeast needs time to produce gas and build a light structure. Underproofed dough bakes dense, while overproofed dough can collapse or turn coarse.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, butter, sugar, egg, flour, cinnamon):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, sugar, egg, flour, cinnamon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

You might also like

Cinnamon RollsCinnamon Rolls71 recipesRed Currant JellyRed Currant Jelly65 recipesCinnamon CakeCinnamon Cake42 recipesCurrant Ice CreamCurrant Ice Cream32 recipes