Gladkov Apple Pie

Apparently, I'm on a Russian kick lately.  I just can't get enough of some of those traditional food I ate as a kid.

This delicious piece of pie/cake/crumble is the Russian Apple pie.  I honestly still don't know if it's technically pie or cake or what it is, so we're just going to keep calling it Apple Pie because that's the easiest thing I can think of.

One of the best parts about Russian food is that everything is super easy to make and takes very few ingredients.

What you'll need:

• 4 eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup flour
• 3 apples

See?  Who doesn't have this stuff laying around?

Start by preheating the oven at 350 degrees.  In the meantime, mix eggs and sugar in a bowl with a hand mixer on a fast setting.

You'll want to mix it for about 3-5 minutes until it's really well blended.

Add flour and mix on the slow setting.

There, that looks good.

Set aside and cut up some apples.  You want really thin slices.

Add the apples to the mix we just made.

You want to make sure that the apples are really covered in the gooey-ness.  Then spoon the whole thing into a rectangular glass pan.  If you like your "pie" soft and mushy, use a smaller pan.  If you prefer that it is crispy and thin, then use a larger pan.

This is a smaller pan only because Jon doesn't like it crispy.  If I had my way, I'd use the biggest pan I could find so that it comes out crispy.

But I guess this will do as well.

Put the whole thing into the pre-heated oven for about 40-45 minutes.

The top should be nice and tan with a little bit of a crisp (or a lot of a crisp if that's what you prefer).

Now here is a Russian trick - cut the whole thing into diamonds.  Yes, you heard me, diamonds.  I have no idea why we have always done it, but my mom did it, her mom before her did it, and therefore, I do it.  It's the Russian way.