Schmandkuchen mit Aprikosen - German Sour Cream Cake with Apricot

Schmand is a dairy product, which is manufactured by fermentation of the cream by different Lactobazillus cultures, a variety of sour cream similar to crème fraîche. It usually contains at least 20% fat.

Sweet Crust	Filling
100 g Almond meal 150 g German #405 flour 1 tsp Baking powder 1 package / 8 g Vanilla sugar 80 g Caster sugar< 100 g Butter, cold 1 Egg, lightly beaten 1 tbsp Walnut, toasted and chopped	400 g 24% Schmandangiesrecipes 200 g 10% Sour cream 1 package / 37 g Dr. Oetker original pudding powderangiesrecipes 1 tbsp Vanilla powderangiesrecipes 3 Egg yolks 120 g Caster sugar 4 Egg whites 700 g Fresh apricots, stoned

1. In a mixing bowl, place together the almond meal, flour, baking powder, and sugars. Cut in the cold butter and rub until the mixture resembles the bread crumb. Add in the beaten egg and mix until a ball of dough forms. Transfer the dough to a 28cm square baking form and press the dough evenly over the bottom and 3cm up against the sides of the pan. Prick the dough all over with the tines of a fork and freeze it for 30 minutes.
   
   
2. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Rinse, dry, halve and pit the apricots. Set aside. Stir together the sour cream and Schmand in a mixing bowl. Sift in the pudding powder and vanilla powder. Mix well. Add in egg yolks, 100 grams of sugar and stir to combine. Beat the egg whites with the rest of sugar until stiff. Fold the egg whites into the batter until incorporated.
   
3. Remove the crust from the freezer and sprinkle the chopped walnut on the bottom of the crust. Arrange the prepared apricot on the curst, then pour in the cream mixture and bake for 50-60 minutes in the center rack of the preheated oven. Remove and cool the cake completely. Dust with icing sugar if desired.