Whole grain apple cake. Simply so good.
Monday, December 20, 2010 at 17:20 This is such an easy cake to make, with all the pluses of whole grains, loads of apple flavor and it even looks pretty. Almost any baking recipe can be converted to whole grain, the only caveat being that you might … might ought to retain at least 50% of the flour as refined flour to keep the wonderful texture and crumb. Doing baked goods with 100% refined flour seems completely silly to me anymore. Why would you do that? If you are ‘converting’ a recipe - always go 50% refined, 50% whole grain at first. Then continue to tinker with it. Some whole grains require a 70% refined/30% whole grain ratio. This is an artistic judgement call.
Give this recipe a try for your holiday gatherings.
Ingredients
3/4 cup flour - this should include 1/4 cup white all-purpose or ‘00’ Italian pastry flour, 1/4 cup whole wheat flour and 1/4 cup barley, millet or oat flour. I like those last three flours for their slightly nutty sweet flavor, and the barley has a high protein content. You can find small bags of these flours - often produced by Bob’s Red Mill - in the grocery store.
3/4 teaspoon of baking powder
Pinch of salt
4 apples - preferably different varieties. Chopped into 1 to 2 inch chunks. No, I don’t peel them. I like the peeling in there. It adds color, fiber and flavor. I’m NOT French.
2 large eggs
scant 3/4 cup sugar - I use Bakers Sugar which is very fine and dissolves/incorporates very quickly and easily. It doesn’t leave little ‘crunchies’.
3 tablespoons either dark rum, dark maple syrup or 2 tablespoons boiled cider
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract - use the best you can afford. I recommend Nielsen-Massey Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla.
8 tablespoons (one stick) of melted unsalted butter that has cooled.
Center the rack in your oven, and preheat to 350 degrees. Butter an 8 inch springform pan. I think you could use any round cake pan for this, if you don’t have the springform. I would put a circle of parchment paper in the bottom if not using the springform.
Prepare your apples by coring and chopping them. Measure out all of your ingredients.
In the bowl of your stand mixer - or any medium bowl - beat the eggs until they are bright yellow and foamy. Pour in the sugar, and continue to whisk to blend. Whisk in the vanilla and rum (or the other flavoring).
Now begin to add your dry ingredients. Always make sure your baking powder is reasonably fresh for best results. If it’s been in the pantry for a year or more, replace it. You don’t want a ‘failure’ over something so trivial.
Add half the flours and half the melted butter, followed by the rest of the flour and remaining butter. Beat/whisk to incorporate thoroughly. You will have a medium dense, smooth batter. Add the apples and fold them through the batter to coat them, using a rubber spatula.
Now scrape it all into the baking pan or springform pan. Even it all out across the pan. Keep your fingers out of it. Yes, it tastes wonderful, but ….
Pop it into the oven. I put mine atop a baking sheet to even out the heat transfer and catch anything that might dribble through.
This puppy will begin to puff up and become something ooooh soooo wonderful. Bake it for about 50 to 60 minutes - mine baked 60 minutes, even in my convection oven which is ‘faster’. When you think it’s done, take a sharp knife and slide it into the middle. If it comes back out ‘clean’, your cake is ready to remove.
Let your lovely cake rest for about 10 minutes on a cooling rack and gather it’s thoughts.
Now, the only tricky part: run a blunt knife around the edge to loosen it. Remove the sides of the springform, if using one. Allow it to cool a bit longer - say 5 to 10 minutes. Then you want to ‘invert’ it onto a platter, big plate or pizza pan. Carefully remove the bottom of the springform pan with a knife or thin cake spatula.
Lay your final platter or plate across the bottom of the cake and invert it again. Voila!
Now, you can be a total pig like me and dive in with a fork … accompanied by a glass of cold milk … or, you can simply let it cool and serve slices with some softly whipped creme and dust it over with some sliced almonds or other nuts.
This doesn’t cut and hold together like ‘cake’. It can fall apart, But who cares? It tastes soooooo good.
YUM FACTOR: Way the fuck up there.
Now, you see why I will never be hired to blog recipes for anybody reputable.
-maven
Apples, apple cake, baking, cake in How to do it, cuisine, food, kitchen, recipes, techniques 
