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Romanian Apple Pie with Cinnamon and Walnuts (Plăcintă cu Mere)
Cookbook author Irina Georgescu introduced us to Romanian plăcintă cu mere, a hybrid of slab-style apple pie bar cookie. The traditional baked treat sandwiches lightly sweetened shredded apples between two layers of tender crust. For our version, we created a buttery, sour cream–enriched dough and we use both tart and sweet apples for flavor balance. The “pie” will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to three days; reheat for 8 to 10 minutes in a 325°F oven.
8-10
Servings
Tip
Don’t be shy about wringing moisture out of the apples. The drier the apples, the firmer and better-textured the bottom crust will be. Also, place the springform pan on a baking sheet before placing it in the oven. This catches drips if butter leaks out during baking.
2¼ hours
1 hour active, plus cooling
For the dough:
-
60
grams (¼ cup) cold sour cream
Directions
-
01To make the dough, in a small bowl or liquid measuring cup, stir together the sour cream and ice water. In a food processor, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt; pulse to combine. Scatter in the butter and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse sand with pebbly bits, 10 to 12 pulses. Drizzle in the sour cream mixture, then pulse until the mixture is curdy in appearance and clumps together, with no dry patches remaining, 20 to 30 pulses.
Reviews
August 12, 2026
question
do you think just to make something different sliced bananas would work instead apples ?
thank you
January 28, 2026
Allergy question
I have some nieces who have nut allergies. Is it possible to exclude the nuts? If you feel they are essential, I could just choose a different recipe when they will be at a specific event.
January 4, 2026
Romanian Apple Walnut Pie
This was delicious. I brushed heavy cream on the top crust and sprinkled it with sugar before baking for a lovely golden crust, but it seemed the crust would have colored up nicely on its own, too. I retained the juice I squeezed out of the prepared apples (I got about a cup) and thickened that with 1 tbsp of cornstarch and heated the mixture to bubbling in the microwave and then let it cool. I used it as a sauce drizzled over the vanilla ice cream I served with the pie, and dusted the top of it with cinnamon. It got rave reviews at a dinner with friends. Everyone fought for the leftovers to take home, which my husband, who loves apple pie of any sort, observed with great distress as his 'home' portion dwindled to one small piece LOL.
February 22, 2025
Nice variation on the usual apple pie
The pastry looked anemic after 40 minutes baking; though it had a lovely texture and went well with the filling. I wonder if an egg wash prior to baking might make a more browned finish? Normally I cut sugar by about 20% for most recipes without issues. However, I prepared this as per the recipe and I would say it was perfect. Not overly sweet but certainly sweet enough. Paired with vanilla ice cream I will definitely cook this again
September 24, 2025
Romanian Apple Pie
Saw this on TV and couldn't wait to make it. It is somewhat time consuming but worth the time. Next time I will roll my top crust out a little thinner. But very tasty
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