Gluten Free Apple Platz

If you aren't from a Mennonite background, you are probably puzzled at this moment by "What in the world is Platz?" It's kind of hard to describe, but it is oh, so delicious! And although I am sharing with you about our tasty apple version, you can make it with so many other fruits; so if apples aren't your thing, you can make all this deliciousness with another fruit and enjoy it that way. My favorite platz is still blueberry!

Back to describing platz...it has a mildly sweet dense cake-like base, with a fruit layer in the middle and is topped by a crispy white streusel type topping. Simply delectable!

The recipe I am sharing was passed on to me by a group of older Mennonite ladies who did some cooking sessions with ladies from their community as a form of ministry which I attended, and I have adapted it to make it gluten free. I really learned a lot about cooking and baking (especially holiday cooking like turkey/ham) from those ladies, and am reminded of them often as I page through my battered recipe binder looking for particular recipes. Every recipe I got from them was a winner and I cherish them! Anyways, here is the recipe:

Gluten Free Apple (or any fruit) Platz

Base layer:

2 cups Bob's Red Mill Cup for Cup flour

3 tsp baking powder

4 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp shortening

1 cup cream

1 egg

Step 1: Sift together flour, baking powder and sugar

Step 2: Add shortening using a pastry blender

Step 3: Add cream and eggs, mix well

Step 4: Pat out into a 9 x13 (or two 8 x 8) greased baking dish/pan pushing the edges up slightly (as seen in the photo)

Fruit Layer:

The middle layer is simply a nice thick layer of fresh fruit (don't worry, the layer will "shrink" a little as it bakes). This recipe works best with fresh fruit as frozen fruit messes to much with the baking time and finished product so thats what I recommend using. Yes, I've tried frozen fruit...no, its not as good!

So, pictures here is my layering of apples for the platz I made on the weekend. Other great fruits to try are: cherries, plums, apricots, blueberries, peaches, strawberries or rhubarb.

Topping Layer:

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup Bob's Red Mill Cup for Cup flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

2 tbsp butter

Cream (add until streusel texture)

Step 1: Mix together sugar, flour and baking powder in a small bowl

Step 2: Rub in the butter and then cream to make course crumbles or streusel. (don't add too much cream too quickly--it will still taste wonderful but looses its beauty and is harder to "sprinkle over" the fruit)

Step 3: Sprinkle over the fruit

Step 4: Bake in oven at 375 for 35-40 minutes

Once you take it from the oven...the house will smell heavenly, and it will look something like this:

I really hope you'll give this recipe a try-and if you do, I'd love to hear how it went and what fruit you tried! Stay tuned for more yummy apple recipes!