Apple Cake

I am enjoying using Dorie Greenspan's latest cookbook, "Around My French Table", and last night I made "Marie-Hélène's Apple Cake" with one small change. The recipe calls for rum and I substituted bourbon. Oh, and I slightly bumped up the salt. The cake was super easy and delicious, not very sweet, and has more apple than batter.

Apple Cake

3/4 cup unsifted all-purpose flour

3/4 tsp baking powder

~1/8 tsp salt

4 lg apples peeled and cut into 1"-2" chunks, you can use 4 different kinds

2 lg eggs

3/4 cup sugar

3 tblsp bourbon

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

8 tblsp (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

Center a rack and preheat oven to 350. Generously butter an 8" springform pan.

Whisk flour, baking powder and salt together in a small bowl.

Beat the eggs with a whisk until foamy. Add sugar and whisk for a minute or so to blend. Whisk in bourbon and vanilla. Then whisk in 1/2 flour, then 1/2 butter, then the rest of the flour and lastly the rest of the butter. Fold in apples with a spatula. Put the mix into the pan and level with the spatula. Bake 50 to 60 minutes or until top is golden and a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool on a rack for 5 minutes and then run a knife around the sides of the cake. Remove the sides of the pan and let the cake cool. The bottom of the pan may be removed after the cake has cooled almost to room temperature.

Dorie says to place the cake pan on a baking sheet covered with parchment or a silicone baking mat before baking the cake, and I guess that is because the batter may leak from the pan. I covered the pan bottom on the outside with foil before I put the batter in it. There was no leakage and so next time I would not worry with the baking sheet. It could affect the browning of the cake bottom though.

I used a combination of mutsu and pippin apples and they were tasty. My only apple tip would be to use a good baking apple, which is pretty obvious.