What to do when you have a crisper drawer full of apples of an unknown provenance? The first thing that came to my mind was "Apple Cake."
I wanted a cake that was mostly apples held together by a matrix of cake, so I started consulting my various cookbooks. After striking out with many, I remembered Richard Sax's book Classic Home Desserts and, voilà, there were three recipes.
I chose the one named "Margaret's Apple Cake," although my friend of the same name would undoubtedly shudder at the use of white sugar and unbleached flour. I share life with someone who likes white sugar and flour, so I buy the best quality organic sugar and flour I can find and try to substitute healthier ingredients when I think I can get away with it. This didn't seem like one of those times.
The cake came out great, moist and flavorful, and was even better with some vanilla ice cream.
I'm appalled. And hungry.
ReplyDeleteI do also think that unrefined sugar tastes a lot better than refined sugar in any recipe, and particularly with apples, so I would try a Billington's sugar next time. I always go for the dark molasses, but there's a lighter one too that would be good. And I bet palm sugar would be tasty with apples. And as for the flour, is there really any excuse for not using whole wheat flour? Seriously. :D
When's dinner?
Thanks for the sugar substitution suggestions. As for replacing all of the flour with whole wheat, well, that usually results in a pretty leaden result in my experience. I might try replacing half of the flour with whole wheat pastry flour, though, although JO's whole-grain detector is strong and vocal!
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