Easy-as-Pie Apple Cake

- Total Time
- 1¼ hours
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 1cup/125 grams unbleached all-purpose flour, more as needed
- ¼teaspoon baking soda
- ¼teaspoon kosher salt
- 2ounces/57 grams unsalted butter (½ stick), softened
- 1cup/200 grams granulated sugar
- 1teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- 1large egg
- 2cups diced apples (from about 2 apples)
- ½cup/57 grams toasted pecans, chopped (optional)
Preparation
- Step 1
Heat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt.
- Step 2
In a mixer bowl fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg. Add the egg and mix until smooth.
- Step 3
With the mixer on low, beat in dry ingredients until smooth (at this point the batter will be quite thick). Fold in the apples and nuts by hand.
- Step 4
Spread batter evenly into a greased and floured 9-inch fluted tart or quiche pan with 1-inch sides. (Alternatively you can use a 9-inch cake pan with 1-inch sides.) Bake until cake is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes before serving.
Private Notes
Comments
This recipe appeared in one of my grandmother's community cookbooks (and I'm no youngster, so it's an old recipe). It's about the only cake I make. I make it with apples, pears, rhubarb, plums, blobs of ripe hachiya persimmon; I use different spices and sometimes cocoa; I use olive oil in place of butter; I add up to half of different flours. It's a wonderful recipe.
In name of all of us from the Old World, I would like to thank the author of this recipe for adding the amounts in grams. All hail universally understandable measurements!
"...a greased and floured 9-inch fluted tart or quiche pan..." is round. That's not the same as a 9" square pan which is 81 sq. in. The area of a 9" round pan is ~63.5 sq. in. An 8X8 pan has almost the same area as a 9" round pan.
Thinking of trying half cup of unsweetened applesauce in place of half the sugar. Anyone try that?
I've made this recipe twice. It is perfect as is and even better with ice cream or heavy cream on it. The second time I made it, I added the seeds crushed from 2 cardamom pods. It added a lovely flavor and aroma.
I multiplied this by 1.5 and baked it like brownies in a 9x13 pan and then cut them in squares. I put whipped cream on top and made a caramel sauce to drizzle over. It was a huge hit. They were also good just as they were. A little on the sweet side. Very moist. Definitely use your hands to mix.
