Sand cake with apple jam

Delicious apple pie. Crumbly shortcrust pastry with fragrant apple "cream". I still can't decide if it's cake or pie. But the fact that it turns out very tasty is beyond any doubt! I changed the recipe 3 times before I got this perfect version, in my opinion. The cake literally melts in your mouth, very tender!

Ingredients

• For test:
• Butter 82.5% (softened) - 150 g
• Eggs - 2 pcs.
• Sour cream (any fat content) - 2 tbsp. spoons
• Wheat flour - 350 g + for working with dough
• Sugar - 70 g
• Vanilla sugar - 10 g
• Salt - 1 pinch
• Baking powder - 10 g
• For filling:
• Apples (peeled and peeled) - 1.2 kg
• Sugar - 2 tbsp. spoons (to taste)
• Butter - 50 g
• Ground cinnamon (optional) - 1/3 teaspoon

Directions

1. Peel apples and seeds. Grind apples with a large grater (or a meat grinder with a suitable attachment).
2. Place chopped apples in a bowl. Add butter, sugar (add to taste and depending on how sour the apples are) and cinnamon (if you don't like it, don't add at all).
3. Do not worry if the apples darken, this is to our advantage. Applesauce will turn out a beautiful caramel color.
4. Cover the saucepan with a lid. Boil the apples over low heat for 20-30 minutes, until soft and smooth (depending on the variety of apples).
5. While the apples are cooking, prepare the dough.
6. Add salt, sugar and vanilla sugar to the eggs. Beat with a mixer. Eggs do not need to be beaten too long, literally one minute.
7. Add sour cream (I have 20%) and soft butter to beaten eggs. Blend at low mixer speed until smooth.
8. Combine flour with baking powder, mix well.
9. Gradually (in parts) add flour to the egg-butter mass, mixing with a mixer.
10. When the resulting mass becomes impossible to mix with a mixer, add the remaining flour and knead soft dough with your hands.
11. You do not need to knead the dough for a long time, just collect it in one lump. The dough becomes sticky. (Dough mass - 770 g)
12. Turn on the oven to preheat to 200 degrees.
13. Dust the surface and hands with flour so that the dough does not stick. Divide the dough into 2 equal parts, round.
14. Roll out each part of the dough on parchment or silicone mat, adding flour if necessary. The rectangle should be approximately 25 cm by 39 cm in size. Bake the cake in a preheated oven for 10-12 minutes, until golden brown.
15. (I bake two cakes at the same time: one cake on a baking sheet, the second on a wire rack.)
16. Cut the finished cakes in half and carefully trim the edges with a serrated knife. The cakes crumble, so do everything gently and with love.
17. Applesauce turned out almost homogeneous.
18. If you want to achieve complete uniformity of mashed potatoes, you can use a blender or potato masher.
19. Visually divide applesauce into 4 parts. Lubricate the cooled cakes with slightly warm or already completely cooled applesauce.
20. From the scraps of the cakes, make crumbs and sprinkle the cake on top.
21. (Be very careful with the cakes, because they are sand-sand, very crumbly. Transfer them with a long knife or some kind of plane.)
22. Leave the shortcake with apple jam to soak for at least 2 hours (at room temperature), but it is better to leave in the refrigerator overnight.
23. Serve the cake with milk or tea.
24. Very tasty and fragrant!