Healthy Apple Pie- German style (Apfelkuchen)

This recipe is adapted from one of Steffen's German cookbooks. The book is called "Kochen und Backen nach Grundrezepten" by Luise Haarer and Regina Menne. What I love about the recipe is that it is a basic crust with minimal fat and sugar and you can use almost any fruit for the filling. We used to double the recipe and make it on a large baking sheet, but I found out after preparing it once here, in Germany, that the baking sheet doesn't fit in our little oven :( So now I bake it in a 26 cm tart pan.

Here is the recipe for the crust-
-Preheat the oven to 375
You will need:
65 grams of melted butter (about half a stick of butter)*( I usually use about 30 grams of butter and 35 grams of applesauce)
250 grams of flour *( I typically use spelt flour, but i'm sure any other flour would be fine)
65 grams of sugar *(because I use apple sauce I usually add a little less sugar)
1 egg
2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon baking powder

I mix everything in the mixer until it has mostly come together. Then you will have to knead it a little on a lightly floured surface until all ingredients are well combined. I haven't had great success with rolling the dough out and then transferring it to the pan, so I just flatten the dough by hand into the pan. Make sure you grease your pan with cooking spray or butter. Once the dough is evenly pressed into the pan you can continue with the filling.

Here is what you need for the filling:
5-6 apples depending on what size they are. Try to use a firm apple, Granny Smiths or Golden Delicious apples work well
2 tablespoons sugar (optional)
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon (optional)
1/4 cup raisins (optional)

Wash and peel the apples. Cut the apples in half and remove the seeds. I like to use a melon baller for the part. Then slice each half into small even slices.  Once you are done you can arrange the apples how ever you like onto the crust. Once you are done arranging the apples you can sprinkle the cinnamon and sugar on top. If you decide to add the raisins I would wait until the last few minutes of baking to add them and cover the pie with foil after since they tend to burn easily.

Once you are finished preparing the pie, place it in your preheated 375 ℉ oven for 40-45 mins. Once the crust starts getting brown around the edges is it done.

I have also made this same recipe using fresh apricots and plums and they came out great!

Transalp Stage 8

Madonna di Campiglio, Italy to Riva del Garda, Italy


Distance: 75.10 km and 1778 m of climbing.

Amazing experience, we will see you again Transalp!!

Route information

This was the last stage. It was amazing how quickly the past 7 days had gone by. This stage started with another 1000m of climbing in front of us. At the beginning there was a traffic jam at the bottom of the hill and cool temps. Rain joined us on the mountain at 1850m above sea level. The down hill was very cold and I had made the mistake to not bring along long gloves. The result was that I lost ten minutes on Andi on a 1100m downhill.
The rest stops saved me that day by serving hot broth. Things got better from the 50 kilometer point on. There was one more little climb that turned out to be rather strenuous, due to the wet conditions. When we crossed the peak we could already see Lago di Garda. The last downhill trail seemed like it would have been a fun trail in dry conditions. Since it was so wet we went with the safe option and pushed our bikes on some of the slippery rock sections. 
We are official finishers!! 

Last finish line

Finisher Medals

Finisher Jerseys

Post race hydration

Post post race hydration!

view of Lago di Garda

The amazing motorcycle rescue crew, they rode
all the trails with us. Thank you!

Transalp Stage 7

Ponte di Legno, Italy to Madonna di Campiglio, Italy


Distance: 73.16 km and 3248 m of climbing.



Route information

I was quite surprised how quickly I had recovered from the previous day's stage where I had struggled some. This day was another hard stage. The rout was shorter than yesterday, but almost the same climbing. Since there were two long downhills, we were hopeful to make up more time on the teams immediately in front of us and we did :). We rode up and down and up and down!! The views today were again an amazing experience. The clouds added some interesting views to the high mountain peaks. As in many stages the race director added a nasty bit at the end of the stage. This time it was an adventure section through a marsh. Supposedly riding through more than ankle deep mud was supposed to be a fun adventure! We were able to push up the last climb and made up some time :). Again it was a close finish within the time limit, but we made it. Madonna di Campiglio could have left a better impression on the riders. The camp showers were in a container with cold water and the dinner was in a parking deck. 

Start, riders as far as you can see

Welcome to Italy, talking with hands required

Transalp Stage 6

Livigno, Italy to Ponte di Legno, Italy


Distance: 106.29 km and 3451 m of climbing.


Route information

swtichbacks

Today I felt like the race had really started.That the first 5 stages were training and just having fun. The day's goal was for us to stay within the time limit. Since it was the longest stage we started an hour early (8.00AM) and the finish line stayed open an hour later (7:00 pm). The biggest difference in today's stage to previous stages was that the biggest climb was at the end. 

   At the beginning of the stage there were traffic jams leaving Livignio and we were therefor forced to walk up parts of the first climb. We were riding pretty hard as soon as we could trying to reach our first goal timepoint that we had set four ourselves. We tried to stay on track in order to make the two official time cut-offs that the race officials had set. Andi did a great job planning our pace for the day. In retrospect, I had probably gone out a little too hard and burned a match or two early on. It was again obvious that a lot of the riders did not possess any technical riding skills. It was not uncommon to see people pushing bikes on sections that were easily rideable. We were on such a tight schedule we didn't have any time for picture taking.There wasn't much time for pictures today!


  The first two climbs were followed by a long flat section (20km). One more 400m climb and then we were off onto the longest downhill (1700m), 38 min of riding down. After the downhill there was one more rest stop and the well known Mortirolo pass was ahead of us.  It was 1500m up in the grueling afternoon heat. I was running out of energy and was trying to stuff as many calories into me as I could, but I could never get back out of the hole. Needless to say, that the end of the stage seemed to last forever! The last 10 km was the longest 10 km I can ever remember. There was gentle climbs into the town of Ponte di Legno. I have to say, I don't think my tank was ever as empty as it was that day. It took 15 min of sitting down, before i could eat something and move on. After eating some good Italian food for dinner, I felt like I had some life back in me and ready for the next day. And yes, we did make the All the time cut-offs :)!!

Done and done, longest stage of this year's Transalp

Beautiful trails

The smiles are back!

Transalp Stage 5

Scuol, Switzerland to Livigno, Italy


Distance: 66.32 km and 2323 m of climbing.


Route information

With Andi's brakes now fixed we were ready to roll. The start line up in Scoul's city center was amazing. There were over a thousand riders mixed in between the historic houses and buildings.
The stage was supposed to be a gift to the riders, which it sort of was. Except my legs didn't want to go :(. Even the easy climb at the beginning seemed to be hard. We rode by a monument for the last bear being shot in this region. The route continued up and down. I was distracted by the great views on lakes and mountain ranges. When we entered the city limits of Livigno, we had to ride back up through the ski resorts to come back in town without being on the main street, fun fun :). I was glad to be in Italy and the food at the finish line was super. I think I ate a whole carrot cake by myself and indulged in my first cappuccino, of which many more followed.

Start line up in Scoul

The easy climb

Bear monument

Transalp Stage 4

Nauders, Austria to Scuol, Switzerland


Distance: 49.94 km and 1800 m of climbing


Route information

WWI site

The morning started with a the Shimano folks still working on Andi's rear brake until shortly before the start of the stage. After he got his bike back everything seemed to be working fine.


We got a little history lesson riding across the Austrian/Italian border and WWI battles. The views from the first peak down to Lake Reschen and the Ortler in the background were quite nice. The stage itself was the shortest of the race, but sure has some nice views. The climb out of Reschen was quite steep and was followed by some nice trails around "Schwarzsee" and its marshes. This is where it began to become apparent that all was not well with Andi's brakes that had just been fixed. His rear break failed again and he was going down the descents using his front break only. The front break finally failed as well and he had to jump in the bushes on the last downhill. We had been riding down a crazy steep concrete section!! Luckily no injuries had to be reported. The flat section at the end riding into Scoul was pretty flat thanks to a mixed team pulling us into town :). Real Swiss cheese and other goodies greeted us at the finish line. We had a great time at the finish line. We met Jason Sumner, a journalist, from Colorado. It is always quite nice to catch up with a friendly American :)

From the bridge in Scoul

Power Nap

Post dinner, mid mountain

Lake Reschen

Lake Reschen

Team riding

Transalp Stage 3

Ischgl, Austria to Nauders, Austria


Distance: 68.22 km and 2691 m of climbing


Route information

According to the route description for this stage, it appeared to included what would be the  hardest climb. In retrospect that wasn't quite true, it was challenging though. The stage had a whooping 1km flat section and then went up 1400m to the crossing of the Alps at Idjoch (2732m). It had snowed the night before and we saw some of the last remains of the powder coating. The views from the top were spectacular, Andi had a blast :). The downhill was a lot of fun again and got us ready for the next climb. We were crossing the borders between Austria and Italy a few times. Towards the end of the stage we had another short climb on gravel roads and more fun downhill to Nauders on single tracks. Right along with our team theme, we had pizza at the finish line! The town of Nauders was certainly one of the best host towns, all 5* hotels were open for all athletes to take showers and use the wellness facilities. We stayed at the bottom of the mountain and took the gondola up for the pasta party. Pasta parties/dinners were hosted by the stage towns every evening, along with the award ceremonies, pictures and video of the day. Andi had some issues with his rear break on this stage and had to convince the Shimano folks who had already started drinking for the night to work on his bike.

on the way up to the Idjoch

Andi at the top, 2732m above sea level. View south

Andi on the last climb, the view of the mountains was fantastic!

fun fun

Finish Line

View of the Ortler, tallest mountain in Austria

Finish line Pizza

Jennifer after the pasta dinner, mid mountain
with future milk production animals!

sportograf did a great job taking pictures all along the route

Transalp Stage 2

Imst, Austria to Ischgl, Austria


Distance: 77.9km and 3274m of climbing


Route information

Today's stage started with a fun climb of 1300m (4265') up to the Venetalm, that had quite a few steep bits in it. This was the first time in years that I have climbed that long at one time. At the pace we are climbing (10min/100m), it ended up taking 2 hours and 10 minutes. At the top we were greeted by cool temps and drizzling rain. The down hill was a lot of fun of course :). The remainder of the stage was two more climbs with a long gradual climb at the end of the stage which finishedin Ischgl. The last 20 km were tough, as there was  continuous up and down steadily climbing into town. Jennifer was waiting for us at the finish line, where Andi and I were consuming huge amounts of Landjaeger sausages. Here are a few pictures: