dough: 125 g butter, 125 g sugar, 250 g flour, 1 egg, 1 sachet baking powder, 1 sachet vanilla sugar; butter for the tin.
3 pounds tart apples.
Frosting: ¾ l cider, 250 g sugar, 1 sachet vanilla sugar, 1 sachet custard.
2 cups of cream, cocoa powder.
Knead a dough from the ingredients and line a buttered springform pan with it. Peel the apples, cut them into eighths, cut out the core and cut the slices into small cubes. Spread on the dough.
Boil the ingredients for the glaze while stirring and pour over the apples. Bake the cake in the oven at 175 degrees for about one and a half hours. Then leave to cool in the tin for half a day. Only then remove.
Whip the cream until stiff and spread on the cake. Dust with cocoa powder before spreading.
Natural products at Apfelwein-Herberth in Kronberg
<.x>N</x>Georg Herberth is a trained farmer, as father and grandfather were already farmers, they also operated a threshing machine. But they also pressed cider, because there were meadow orchards and there still are.
As everyone knows, there is a lot of dust when threshing, which is why the operating staff, called "Threschmaschiner", was always thirsty. So the 2,000 litres of wine they used to press from their own fruit didn't last long. Georg Herberth's father, by the way, was already able to find out how large the proportion of the different varieties had to be in each case when tasting the wine apples so that the Schoppen had the right acidity. He, as well as his successors, had the choice among old varieties. There are about 500 apple trees on the farm; the oldest, a Boskop, has been bearing fruit for 180 years. Like his ancestors, Georg Herberth also cultivates the old varieties: Trierer Mostapfel, Schafsnasen, Anhalter, Bohnapfel, and as they are all called.
In 1970, they decided to press cider for sale, which also found rapid sales. All this was still done in Niederhöchstadt, at the ancestral seat of the Herberth family, which was located in the middle of the village.
When the town of Kronberg (after unpleasant experiences with a Frankfurt brewery) was looking for a new operator for the Kronthal spring in the idyllic valley of the same name, the Herberths jumped at the chance and took over both the spring and the company buildings on the extensive estate on a leasehold basis. Here, no neighbors could feel disturbed anymore.
"We sit in nature and make natural products", that's how the boss sees the situation today, wife Maria and the two sons, businessman one, beverage engineer studied in Geisenheim the other, work with in the company.
Three kinds of cider are produced: hearty with Speierling the one; mild-delicious the other and the "Urschoppen" finally, which is also available directly from the barrel. Then there is the naturally cloudy and clear apple juice; 45% clear apple brandy with five years of storage; and the "Apfelklassiker" herb, that is sealed apple cider, shaken by hand and stored underground in former water storage tunnels. By the way, it is only bottled in returnable bottles. And because the senior sees no sense in carting cider around, it is also only available in the immediate vicinity.
About in the "Apfelweingarten", which is open from May to October. While the old people sit under the trees and enjoy the wine, cold and warm food, the children have a good time, too. They can have fun in "acht cubic meters of cleaned sand" or with toys. And pet rabbits.
With the Kronthal apple cider, a delicious cake can be baked. Whether "Herberths hot apple bomb" tastes good with it, everyone has to decide for himself. In any case, it warms cold feet on the spot.
Spezialkelterei
Georg and Maria, Georg and Stephan Herberth
<x>.N</x>Im Kronthal 12-16
61476 Kronberg am Taunus (direction Mammolshain)
Tel: 06173-4064, Fax: 4433
from Waldemar Thomas