Ridiculously simple to toss together, and really, very, very good, this recipe, from Dorie Greenspan’s Around My French Table, is also a wicked handy way to use up a few apples that have, ermmm, shall we say, been hangin’ around the fruit bowl a tad too long?
I had some small-ish Gala apples that were beginning to wrinkle a bit, and bought a large Honey Crisp to round out the flavor; but the original recipe calls for using four different types of apple, which I can see would add a nice mix of flavors.
INGREDIENTS
•3/4 cup flour
•3/4 tsp baking powder
•1/8 tsp salt
•4 large apples
•2 large eggs
•3/4 cup sugar
•3 tbsp dark rum
•1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
•1 stick unsalted butter, melted and cooled
(Plus extra butter for the cake pan)
Heat your oven to 350º and butter a spring form pan – the original recipe called for using an eight inch, mine was a nine inch, so I mebbe got a flatter cake, but all worked out just fine.
Whisk the flour together with the salt and the baking powder in a small bowl and set aside.
Peel and core the apples, then cut into one or two inch chunks.
Whisk the eggs in a mixing bowl until foamy, then add the sugar and whisk again until well blended, about a minute.
Whisk in the run and the vanilla, then add half of the flour and whisk until it is blended into the mixture.
Whisk in half of the cooled melted butter, then the remaining flour and butter, whisking after each addition until you have a smooth, kinda thick batter.
Fold the apples in with a rubber spatula, turning the apple bits so that they are all well coated with the batter.
Turn the batter into the spring form pan, place on a parchment paper lined baking sheet (to catch any possible drips) and pop into the hot oven for 50 minutes to one hour; until the cake is golden brown and a knife inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. My nine inch cake took about 56 minutes.
Transfer to a rack and allow to cool for five minutes.
Run a knife around the edges of the pan and pop the spring form. If you want to, you can wait until the cake is almost cooled, run a long metal spatula between the cake and its base, then invert it onto a piece of parchment or waxed paper before transferring to a cake plate.
I kept mine on the base and we sliced as needed, popped a piece in the ‘wave for 20 seconds and topped it with some good ice cream and caramel sauce.
Very nice.