Grated apples, toasted nuts and cinnamon, all stuffed into a sweet crust. This perpetually juicy tart, named for Zürich’s clergy houses, is an apple-lover’s dream.

Origin Story

There are numerous recipes to be found online, along with versions in two of my favourite Swiss cookbooks from the 80s: Kochkunst und Tradition in der Schweiz, and Peter Bührer’s Schweizer Spezialitäten

However, there seems to be no consensus exactly on where (or when) it appeared, and even though it is named for their Pfarrhaus, the the reform church of Zürich doesn’t seem to know the origin either. A 2015 edition of their church circular, Notabene, states on page 5:

…unglaublich Leckeres: die Zürcher Pfarrhaustorte. Warum sie so heisst, weiss niemand mehr genau. Das ist aber egal.

…unbelievably delicious, the Zürcher Pfarrhaustorte. Why it’s called that, nobody knows anymore. But that doesn’t matter.

before presenting a short recipe.

I guess it’s safe to assume that it was a rectory favourite, chock full of Zürcher apples, and enjoyed throughout the canton, before spreading to the rest the country.

For this recipe I used my standard sweet tart dough, with icing sugar instead of granulated to make a tender crust. I brushed this with a little egg yolk and popped it in the freezer to prevent a soggy bottom.

As for the filling, there are plenty of online recipes—Betty Bossi, swissmilk, one from Brunner Mosterei in canton Zürich that gave me the idea to brush the apples with Birnenhonig instead of jam, and one from Zürich’s favourite pumpkin destination Jucker Farm—with small variations in the amount of nuts, apples and sugar.

I think it needs at least 300 g of grated apples, and I like using apples on the sour side like Boskoop, Braeburn or Cox. I used ground almonds, and while many of the recipes favour hazelnuts, I think whichever you choose it helps to be toasted before being added to the filling. Most recipes I found had a bit too much sugar, so I scaled down to 50 g. I also liked whipping the egg whites, which some of the older recipes did not specify.

The decoration itself is similar to that of the Thurgauer Apfelkuchen (apples topping cake batter).

For the tart dough:

160 g flour

50 g icing sugar

1 tsp salt

100 g butter

1 egg

For the filling:

4 medium apples, grated (about 300 g)

juice of one lemon

120 g ground almonds, toasted

50 g sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp salt

3 eggs, separated

For the decoration:

6-7 apples, peeled

Birnenhonig

For the dough:

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, and salt.

Add the cold butter in pieces and rub into the flour mixture with your fingers until you have small flakes.

Make a well in the middle of the flour and add the egg. Mix this gently until a dough forms. Try not to overwork the dough or it will become tough.

Press the dough into a disc, wrap with plastic, and let cool in the fridge for about an hour.

Roll out your dough and line a 24 cm (9 inch) tart pan with removable bottom or springform.

Brush the bottom with a little egg yolk (you can use a bit of the yolk from the three eggs that will eventually go into the filling, see note below), then keep the tart shell cool (preferably in the freezer) until you have the filling ready. 

Preheat oven to 200 C / 400 F / gas mark 6, bottom heat.

For the filling:

Grate the apples and put them in a medium bowl with the lemon juice (add this immediately so they don’t turn brown).

In the meantime, lightly toast your nuts (tips here) in your preheating oven then let cool.

Add the nuts, sugar, cinnamon, salt, and egg yolks to the apples and mix well.

Using an electric mixer, whip the egg whites to stiff peaks and fold this into the filling.

Spread into your prepared pan.

For the decoration:

Peel, halve and core the apples. Make a series of slices into their backs and place them gently on top of the filling.

Warm the Birnenhonig and brush over the apples.

Bake in the bottom half of the oven, with bottom heat, for about 15 minutes, then remove from oven and brush with warmed Birnenhonig a second time.

Bake for an additional 15-20 minutes, or until the pastry is lightly browned and the filling is set.

• If you are short of time or motivation, you can use a store-bought sweet shortcrust pastry like a Mürbeteig/paté brisée sucrée.

• I brush the bottom of the tart with egg yolk to help prevent a soggy bottom, and I used some of the egg yolk from the filling to do this. Simply separate the eggs, then brush the bottom with a bit of yolk, adding the rest to the filling when called for.

• You don’t need to peel the apples for the filling. You can simply grate all four sides down to the core against a box grater.

• I like toasting my nuts to add extra flavour, but this is by no means mandatory.

• To prevent your decorative apples from browning, you can work quickly, or even dip them in lemon juice (although they do tend to brown a bit while baking).

• If you don't have Birnenhonig, you could try honey, treacle or golden syrup, or the classic, jam. More on Birnenhonig, here.