polish apple cake

aka the best apple dessert ever

Hello hello! Today I’m here with one of my absolute favorite Polish desserts which just so happens to be perfect for Thanksgiving and this time of year (apple szn). I got married over the summer and my husband’s family is Polish — aaaand I finally got my last name officially changed so I decided to make my favorite Polish dessert to celebrate.

This is szarlotka (shar-lot-ka), or polish apple cake, which is more akin to an apple pie bar than a cake. It starts out with a sweet shortcrust pastry (or a pâte sucrée, if you want to make it sound fancier) that gets topped with a thick layer of lightly sweetened cooked shredded apples. Sometimes it’s topped with meringue, sometimes not, but I decided to top the apples with meringue because 1) it’s delicious and 2) we have an extra egg white to use up from the crust anyway — but you could certainly skip the meringue if you’re in a time crunch! The whole thing is topped off with crumbled sweet shortcrust pastry and a generous dusting of powdered sugar, which is where the majority of the sweetness comes from.

If you love apple desserts, I promise you you’ll love this cake — so let’s get into it! ☺︎