Every once in a while you need a dessert that can pretty much be thrown together at a moment’s notice. This French Apple Cake is just that.
While I love hosting people for dinner, sometimes I just want a low-key catchup session that doesn’t involve washing every single dish and bowl that I own. This is where tea dates come in. It’s a great way to just sit on the couch and catch up on all of the randomness that has been going on in life. Since I have that sweet tooth I’m always inclined to have a little sweet treat on hand to nibble on.
Prior to one such tea date I decided that I wanted to make a new-to me dessert and headed over to David Lebovitz’s site which is one of my favourites especially since he is based out of Paris. I came across this apple cake and new that I had to make it. David had adapted the recipe from another one of my expat favourites, Dorie Greenspan who also happens to be an expert when it comes to all things dessert/pastry related so i had an inkling that this would be great.
What drew me to this recipe is the sheer quantity of apples and the minimal amount of flour. 4 apples and only 3/4 cups of flour. Oh, and an entire stick of butter. How is that for proportions for you?? Oh, and there’s rum. Clearly this cake had my name written all over it. The batter was essentially chunks of apples loosely bound together by the batter. I was definitely worried that this might turn out and just be a weird sort of apple pudding concoction (which wouldn’t have been bad but just not what I was after).
The resulting cake was pretty amazing. There is the fact that it was so simple to throw together. I mean literally, thrown together. No fussy ingredients, no special techniques… nothing fancy. And the fact that this really just reminds me of simple French cooking. When I studied abroad in Paris we had our own apartment but had to have dinner once a week with our landlord and her family. The food was always delicious and she’d always have these super simple but incredibly delicious desserts. I could totally see this on her table. And it was just plain delicious. Moist. Apple-y. A hint of rum. Seriously, perfection.
Enjoy!
French Apple Cake
3/4 cup (110g) flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
4 large apples (a mix of varieties)
2 large eggs, at room temperature
3/4 cup (150g) sugar
3 tablespoons dark rum
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
8 tablespoons (115g) butter, salted or unsalted, melted and cooled to room temperature
Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting (optional)
1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF and generously butter an 8- or 9-inch (20-23cm) springform pan and place it on a baking sheet.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
3. Peel and dice the apples.
4. In a large bowl, beat the eggs until foamy then whisk in the sugar, then rum and vanilla. Whisk in half of the flour mixture, then carefully stir in half of the melted butter. Stir in the remaining flour mixture, then the rest of the butter.
5. Gently mix in the apples until they’re well-coated with the batter and scrape them into the prepared cake pan and smooth the top a little with a spatula.
6. Bake the cake for 50 minute to 1 hour, or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Let the cake cool for 5 minutes, then run a knife around the edge to loosen the cake from the pan and carefully remove the sides of the cake pan, making sure no apples are stuck to it.
7. Dust with confectioners’ sugar if desired.
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Lovely work! Would you be happy to link it in to the current Food on Friday which is all about French Food? This is the link . I do hope to see you there. There are already a lot of links for you to check out. Cheers
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