Croatian Apple Pie (Croatian word for pie is “pita”) is made with crumbly butter dough and cinnamon apple filling. It is baked in rectangular pan and cut into squares. That is why more descriptive title for this recipe would be Apple Pie Bars.
Croatian dessert recipes are not too sweet. So, if you have a sweet tooth, add some more sugar to the filling. Good thing is that you can taste the filling before assembling the pie, so you can adjust sweeteness to your liking.
Let the bars cool a little bit before cutting because they are very soft when they are hot.
Apple Pie Bars (Croatian Pita) can be served warm with vanilla ice cream, or cold, sprinkled with powdered sugar.
Apple Pie Bars (Croatian Pita)
Servings: 9 x13"
Ingredients
- DOUGH:
- 400 g flour (0.9 lb; 3 1/4 cups)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 egg
- 100 g sugar (3.5 oz; 1/2 cup), or more
- 150 g butter (5 oz; 1/2 cup + 1 3/4 Tbsp)
- 1-2 Tbsp sour cream or milk optional
- 2 Tbsp dry bread crumbs
- FILLING:
- 1,5 kg apples (3 lb), about 10 medium apples
- 3 Tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
Instructions
-
DOUGH: Combine flour, baking powder, egg, sugar and butter to make a dough. If the dough is too dry, add up to 1 Tbsp milk. Do not overwork the dough. Wrap it and cool in refrigerator for about 30 minutes.
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FILLING: Peel and grate apples. Mix with sugar and cinnamon. Adjust the sweetness to your taste.
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ASSEMBLE: Divide the dough in half. Roll out the dough with a rolling pin on a floured surface. Press one half of the dough into the bottom of the 9x13" baking pan and up the sides. Sprinkle with dry bread crumbs and spoon in apple filling. Cover with the top crust.
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Bake at 170 C (340 F) for about 45 minutes or until the crust is pale golden. Sprinkle with powdered sugar, cut into squares and serve.
Apple Pie bars (Croatian pita)
Can someone help me on what a dag is on this recipe. I’ve never heard of it before & I would like to attempt making this recipe.
What would the best apples be to use on this recipe ?
Thank you so much I really appreciate it
Dag is a dekagram, meaning 100 grams. It is a measure used in Europe and Australia. In brackets you can see the same measure in pounds/ounces. I’ve just added measures in US cups – maybe it will be easier that way.
several problems here: 1) a decagram is 10 grams, not 100 (see https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gramm#Dekagramm and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decagram). you have confusing instructions like “40 g dag flour 400 ;”, but i think you really should say “400 g/40 dag flour” 2) this measure is not universal in europe and australia. as a native english speaker and cook i have never heard of it and i have lived in both australia and europe. it seems to exist in germanic language, but is not popular in the romantic/english language european countries. some groups of migrant may use it in australia, but it is not mainstream.… Read more »
There are two problems here, indeed. One is that at the time of writing this post I didn’t know that decagram is not a unit used all around the world. I just copied the recipe from my own cookbook.
Second is that I recently switched from old WP recipe plugin the new one which messed up my recipe measurements all over my site. For some reason it does not recognize parentheses. Originally I wrote “40 dag (400 g) flour”.
In the meantime I decided it is the best that I don’t use decagrams at all since it just confuses people.
Tim, in Slovenia Croatia neighbor country, we also use decagrams.
Hi! Is it possible to make this without the bread crumbs? I want to try making this today but do not have any bread crumbs at home.
Hi Sophie! It is possible to make this without the bread crumbs. You will have to use something else, like cookie crumbs or leftover cake crumbs, to soak the excess apple juice during baking.
Hi, is it possible to make without egg?
It probably is. In that case I would add more liquid.
I’m so excited to make these. What kind of apple would you recommend?
I use any kind I have at hand. Tart apples may need a little bit more sugar.
Growing up my mother always made apple pita. After grating the apples she would always squeeze out as much juice as possible by hand. It helps in preventing the bottom crust from getting too soggy.