English Apple Shortcake with Brown Sugar & Cream-Cheese Crust . . .

Household circumstances sometimes have a way of forcing your hand. You know what I mean. There's the long front hedge bordering your neighbor's driveway, so shaggy at times it demands to be trimmed lest it bring shame upon the family. There's the faucet that gasps and yawns and refuses to put in an honest day's work until the plumber is finally called in.

And, this morning, there was the problem of the ignored bookshelf. I'm talking about the big 7x4-footer with six really deep shelves. It was barely 9 a.m. when that thing finally gave up the ghost, collapsing under its burden with a mighty crash.

I was in the basement, romancing the ironing board again, when thunder rumbled above my head. Instantly I knew what had happened. I'd been expecting just such a catastrophe. I merely nodded to myself in acknowledgment and kept on ironing. I'd confront the monster soon enough.

The warning signs had been staring me in the face for months, but I'd ignored them. I'd ignored the obscenely overladen shelves, each one sagging in the middle like a tired mule. I'd ignored the fact that the brackets holding up each shelf were pathetically inadequate even to my untrained eye.

Eventually I trudged upstairs and stood there silently, gazing in resigned disgust at the aftermath. Books that had been packed together sardine-style had thunked to the floor willy nilly, a few stragglers still plummeting now and then in solidarity.

The resulting pile was about 18" deep, easily six feet wide, and thoroughly impassable. It was the Niagara Falls of literature. I thanked the fates that my husband hadn't had to face this right before heading off to work. It would have been too much for him. There would have been copious cussing. Better it happened this way.

About this recipe . . . 

As in so much of life, such mishaps often reveal their own silver lining. As I was sorting and stacking the  victims, one volume fell open at my feet and a particular page caught my eye. It was The Kitchen Diaries: A Year in the Kitchen with Nigel Slater. (Slater, in case you're unfamiliar, is a British food writer and a passionate home cook.) I sat down amidst the destruction and read through  the recipe that inspired today's dessert.

I made a few small changes to Slater's formula and ended up with something wonderful. Instead of using Bramley apples (which I've never seen in Michigan), I used Sweet Tango apples; they're firm, crunchy, and they'll make you pucker. Instead of turbinado sugar in the crust dough, I used light brown sugar, and I subbed some cream cheese for part of the butter, also adding in a generous pinch of kosher salt. I added a mixture of superfine- and light brown sugars to lightly caramelize the simmering apples, instead of just using a very small amount of superfine alone. We served this with a dollop of delicately sweetened whipped cream on top. Especially when served slightly warm, this makes for a comforting and rustic dessert.

English Apple Shortcake with Brown Sugar & Cream-Cheese Crust

(For a printable version of this recipe, click here!)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and place a metal baking sheet in the oven to heat up. Butter a 9" or 10" pie, cake, casserole, or quiche pan.

For the crust:
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup cream cheese, room temperature
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1 egg, large, at cool room temperature
2 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (I used unbleached.)
1 and 1/4 tsp. baking powder
1 generous pinch kosher salt

For the filling:

2 and 3/4 lbs. firm, tart, and sweet apples (I recommend Sweet Tango or Honey Crisp apples.)
half of a lemon
4 Tbsp. unsalted butter
1/4 cup superfine sugar
1/3 cup light brown sugar

For the top of the crust, before baking:

A couple tablespoons of milk, half & half, or cream
2 Tbsp. superfine sugar



Peel and core all of the apples, and slice them as you would for apple pie (I made my slices at least 1/4" thick). Put the slices into a big bowl of cold water and squeeze the lemon-half over them; this will help keep them from turning brown while you're preparing the crust. Set the bowl aside.

In a medium size bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

In the large bowl of your mixer, on medium speed, cream together the butter, cream cheese, and brown sugar for a few minutes, until light and fluffy. Blend in the egg.

On low speed, add in the dry ingredients and blend until combined.

Dump the dough, which will be very soft, onto a heavily floured surface (do not skimp on the flour!).

Flour your hands, and knead the dough a few times, just for a minute or so, until it's smooth.

Divide the dough into two equal parts. Use a rolling pin to roll out half the dough; it will be thick. Carefully transfer the rolled out dough into the buttered pan and press it gently into the corners. It doesn't have to look perfect. Wrap up the second piece of dough in plastic wrap and place it in the fridge along with the dough-lined pan, while you finish prepping the apples.

Drain the apples in a colander. Heat a large frying/saute pan, and add the 4 Tbsp. of butter. Toss the apple slices into the hot butter and let them simmer over medium heat until the butter looks frothy and the apples start to just soften around the edges, stirring now and then.

Raise the heat and sprinkle the 1/4 superfine sugar and 1/3 cup light brown sugar over the apples. Cook the apples until they just begin to caramelize; they should be slightly soft and have taken on a deeper yellow color. Take the pan off the heat.

Remove the second dough half from the fridge and roll it out as you did the first piece.

Remove the dough-lined pan from the fridge. Spoon the apple slices into the dough-lined pan.

Carefully place the top crust over that.

Pinch the edges closed.

Use a pastry brush to coat the top crust with milk or cream, but don't brush it on the outer edge (that'll be the first area to burn). Sprinkle liberally with superfine sugar.

Bake the shortcake for up to about 40 minutes, or until it's fully golden and feels firm. Let the finished shortcake cool on a rack until it's no longer hot.

Good served warm or cold, with sweetened whipped cream.

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Fresh Apple Cake with Boiled Cider Glaze . . .

Maybe you saw from my previous post that my father passed away recently? I mention this again only because, while he was ill over the latter half of the summer, my urge to bake just about completely fizzled. It was kind of like my inner pilot-light temporarily flickered out. I had other things on my mind, of course, and my energy was directed elsewhere. I guess baking for pleasure seemed like a frivolous pursuit.

But now, as I restart my internal baking engine, so to speak, I realize that I want to make things that are distinctly comfort inducing--dishes that remind me of why I love baking to begin with, and that evoke the sense of contentment I knew as a kid while watching my mom move confidently about her kitchen. I can still see the silver beaters on her Sunbeam mixer whirling in place as she hovered nearby, spatula poised, her blue eyes riveted on a bowl of pound-cake batter or thick chocolate icing. I don't think it would be stretching the truth to say that my dad enjoyed just about every food she ever prepared, and each night as we finished dinner, he'd thank her for having made it. I know that left an impression on me.

My dad loved the fact that I was always baking and I recall how surprised and charmed he was a couple of years ago when I informed him I was entering culinary school part-time to study the baking and pastry arts. He often asked me what I was working on, and occasionally requested that I make homemade bread for him, or peanut butter cookies, or creamy clam chowder. Eventually, he couldn't keep it in his mind that I was in culinary school at all, but that was okay. Though in the last several weeks he couldn't have told you what decade it was or what he'd had for lunch one minute after he ate it, he still recognized the most important things in life and, even up to the end, was still alert enough to give and receive expressions of love. I'll always be grateful for that.

 
About this recipe . . .

That desire of mine to bake comfort food brings me to today's fresh apple cake. Adapted from a recipe for apple rum cake found in pastry chef Nick Malgieri's book, Perfect Cakes, I omitted his use of the rum altogether and substituted a larger amount of boiled cider for the primary flavoring ingredient. I also used boiled cider in the glaze instead of rum, and I left raisins out of the batter as well.

What the heck is boiled cider, you may be asking? It's exactly what it sounds like. It's apple cider that has been slowly reduced in much the same way maple sap is cooked down into maple syrup. You can buy boiled cider in a bottle, like the kind I used for this recipe, or you can try making it yourself by simmering two cups of cider in an uncovered saucepan over low heat until it's shrunk down to 2/3 of a cup (that last bit of advice I found in my old copy of Richard Sax's indispensable book, Classic Home Desserts: A Treasury of Heirloom and Contemporary Recipes). Boiled cider still tastes exactly like cider, but in a richly concentrated form; it's very good.

I adjusted this cake recipe further by adding in restrained pinches of nutmeg and cinnamon--only enough to hint at their spicy presence, and of course I reworded it to reflect exactly what I did. Moist and satisfying, this simple cake is just right for early fall. Not too sweet, and the use of the boiled cider really pumps up the apple flavor. A good bet for brunch, dessert, or a nice afternoon snack with a cup of tea.

Fresh Apple Cake with Boiled Cider Glaze
(For a printable version of these recipes, click here!)

Yield:  One 9" cake, baked in a springform pan.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter the bottom and sides of a 9" springform pan, line the bottom of the pan with a 9" parchment paper circle, then butter the parchment.


Ingredients for the cake:
2 large tart apples (I used Granny Smiths), peeled, cored, halved, and sliced into pieces about 1/8" thick
3 Tbsp. boiled apple cider

2 and 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (I used unbleached)
2 tsp. baking powder
Scant 3/4 tsp. kosher salt
1 scant pinch ground cinnamon
1 scant pinch ground nutmeg

12 Tbsp. (1 and 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at soft room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3 eggs, large
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 Tbsp. milk


Ingredients for the glaze:
1 to 1-and-1/4 cups confectioners' sugar
2 to 4 Tbsp. boiled cider (depending on how thick or thin you prefer your glaze to be)

* * * * * 

Mix the sliced apples and the 3 Tbsp. of boiled cider together in a bowl. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, kosher salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

In the large bowl of your mixer, using the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar together on medium speed until fluffy and light. One at a time, beat in the eggs, still on medium speed. Add in the vanilla.

Take the bowl off the mixer. Using a rubber spatula, fold in half the flour mixture.

Set a colander over an empty bowl and dump the apples along with their liquid into it. Let them drain a minute or so.

Add the milk into the cider drippings, then pour this liquid into the batter and stir it in.

Fold the remaining flour into the batter.

Evenly spread half of the batter into the bottom of the prepared springform pan. Use a small offset spatula (ideally), or the back of a spoon, to spread it out.

Scatter all of the apples over the top of the batter (they do not need to be neatly arranged); try to leave just a narrow margin of uncovered batter close to the sides of the pan.

Plop the remaining batter over that and spread it out smoothly.

Bake the cake on the middle rack of your oven for approximately 55 to 60 minutes, or until the cake feels  firm, is golden brown, and apples seem tender. Test it with a toothpick if you like.

Cool the cake in its pan, set on a rack, for 15 minutes before attempting to remove the sides of the pan.

Run a thin metal spatula or knife around the edge before removing the sides. Then, invert the cake quickly and carefully onto a flat plate; lift off the bottom of the pan, peel off the parchment circle if it's stuck to the cake, then quickly reinvert the cake-bottom back onto the cooling rack. Let the unpanned cake cool fully on the rack.

To make the glaze:

With the confectioners' sugar in a medium-small bowl, begin adding in the boiled cider one tablespoon at a time, adding in more and stirring continually until all lumps are gone and the glaze is as thick or thin as you prefer.

Drizzle the glaze over the cooled cake, or serve it warm, drizzled over individual slices.

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Springtime Apple Cinnamon Cake . . .

If I could bottle and sell the fragrance that permeates my kitchen this afternoon, I'd be a rich woman. It is a sweet trio of apples, cinnamon, and hyacinth. Not a combination one would necessarily expect on a beautiful spring day. What business do apples and cinnamon have consorting with hyacinths anyway? None that I would have anticipated. But somehow, they seem to be making lovely bedfellows, as least as far as scent goes.

 

The hyacinths, while a charming accompaniment to my morning's baking adventure, don't really have anything to do with today's recipe, except perhaps for the fact that their very presence keeps reminding me that it's April now and not October--hyacinth season, but not apple season.

 Despite the reality that apples are technically out of season, there are still some pretty nice ones to be found in produce markets. How they accomplish this--they being those mysterious entities who store and distribute fruit--I haven't a clue . . . and I'm not altogether sure I want to know. But, since this time of year is sort of an awkward in-between period as far as extremely fresh fruit goes, I've found myself reverting lately to apples, as I await and long for Michigan's summertime harvest.

Apples, after all, tend not to become horrendously expensive, and certain varieties always seem to be reliably firm and tasty. So, after tossing around four or five good-looking apple cake recipes I finally settled on the one that I baked today. Fellow bakers, I think I may have hit the apple-cinnamon cake jackpot.

 

Torn from the October 2009 issue of Redbook magazine, this cake is one fine creation. The original recipe was, in my humble opinion, almost perfect from the get-go. Fairly simple and not too time consuming to prepare, this cake is moist, but not too moist. Neither too sweet nor too tart. Nirvana when served warm, with a little scoop of vanilla ice cream.

The only adjustment I made to it was to increase the amount of cinnamon by almost 100 percent because, frankly, I'm kind of a cinnamon maniac. (Yeah, I'm always up for a healthy bout of cinnamon shopping. And cinnamon sticks? You kidding? I love those things. So cute the way they curl up, don't you think?)

Of course, I reworded the original recipe's directions and added in my own commentary. Oh, and if you don't want any nuts in it, I see no reason why you can't leave them out entirely; chopped pecans help form the bottom crust, as it were, but there are no nuts at all in the batter.

Listen to me: Try this cake if you're crazy about apples and cinnamon . . .  you may just love it.

Springtime Apple and Cinnamon Cake

(For a printable version of this recipe, click here!)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray with baking spray, or grease and flour, a 10-cup tube pan with a removable bottom (I don't advise trying to substitute a standard springform pan with the tube insert; this cake might rise higher than the sides of the pan).

3/4 finely chopped pecans (I toasted mine in the oven for a few minutes first)
3 cups All-Purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
1 Tbsp. & 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
4 large baking apples, peeled, cored, and sliced thinly (I used Granny Smiths)
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
4 eggs, large
1/2 cup vegetable oil (I used canola)
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup orange juice
2 tsp. vanilla extract

Sprinkle the chopped pecans evenly over the bottom of the prepared pan.

In a large bowl (not your mixer bowl), whisk together 2 Tbsp. of the flour, 1/4 cup of the sugar, and all of the cinnamon. Add the apple slices into this and toss them until they're well coated.

In the bowl of your mixer, mix the remaining flour and sugar, along with all of the  baking powder, salt, eggs, oil, butter, orange juice, and vanilla extract. Mix on medium-low speed for about two minutes or so, until the mixture is smooth.

Pour half of the batter over the pecans in the cake pan (the batter will be sticky and thick). Spread it evenly with a spatula.

 

Top this with half of the sliced apples. Try not to let the apples touch the sides of the pan or the tube.
 

Then spread the other half of the batter over the apples evenly. On top of this, place the rest of the apples, arranging them in a fan design if you like. Again, take care to keep them from touching the sides of the pan or the tube.

Bake the cake for about one hour (the original recipe says to bake it for 80 minutes, but I believe my cake would have been dry, too crusty, and significantly over-browned if I'd let it go that long), until a toothpick inserted deeply in the center comes out clean. If the top of the cake is browning too quickly, lightly cover it with foil about halfway through the baking time.

Cool the cake on a rack, in the pan, for about 30 minutes. Run a knife along the sides of the cake, and under the bottom of it, to loosen.

Carefully invert the cake onto a flat plate, but reinvert it back onto its serving plate (it'll still be warm) or onto a cooling rack to finish cooling completely. The arranged apples should be visible on the top; the pecan layer is the bottom crust.

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