Dutch classics no.1 - appeltaart

A chain of local supermarkets currently has a promotion that involves providing 'kits' with everything you'd need to cook a number of Dutch classics.

(We have visited many eateries in our year here and Richard and the children feel that it is their duty, each time it's available, to sample its take on the Dutch classic, appeltaart. This particular dish is no ordinary apple pie - it is deep (normally at least a couple of inches thick) with a latticed top, spiced, and stuffed full of apples.)

So last week, when I was walking round the fresh produce section of the supermarket in question, Albert Heijn, and I saw a ready made kit for appeltaart, I really couldn't resist buying it. For a while now, I've been meaning to turn my hand to making this particular dish. What fun for the girls I thought. Everything is there - it will be so easy. That was my opinion until we came to making it. Instructions were in Dutch and so my vision of leaving the children to doing something creative, by themselves, was rudely shattered by having to type the entire recipe into Google Translate, prevent Grace from eating the contents of the cinnamon sugar tub/from cutting her finger off as she chopped the apples into chunks, and to stop Amber from eating them before they had been put into the pastry case.

But eventually, it was completed, put into the oven, baked and consumed. The girls clearly had fun - they want me to buy another! (The pic shows Grace with the box the kit came in and Robyn and Amber with the finished product).

(As an addendum - tonight we ate another classic, and yes, the contents of another of the kits - stoofperen. Stewed pears by another name.)