Apple And Brandy Syrup Cake

I do envy all those of you who are experiencing Fall right now. The colours of the leaves, the crispness in the air and the general cosiness that the season evokes, be it the clothes, the food or just the general, toasty vibe.

 

You could argue that the Winter is anyway pleasantly mild in my part of the World but with the way the weather is these days, Winter or whatever we pass off as Winter is still a while away. So, I did the only sensible thing one does when you can't get what you want. You bake a cake, of course! And this one has the flavours of Fall!!

 

 

It's an apple cake with a supporting cast of oranges, cinnamon, raisins and walnuts that once baked is then glazed with a brandy syrup. Much like other cakes on this blog, this one too, is not much of a looker but don't be hasty in judging it.

 

It's a dense, moist cake that is crammed with flavour. The star pairing is that of apple and cinnamon with the undertone of citrus giving it some freshness. The toasted walnuts and raisins provide the tiny pockets of texture and taste that are always welcome. If anything, the flavours are slightly reminiscent of a Christmas cake.

 

 

Over the course of the baking, the apples stew in their own juices with the sprinkling of cinnamon and sugar on top and will remind of you of everyone's favourite Apple Pie. The brandy syrup keeps the apples and the cake below moist.

 

A warm cake does not need any embellishments I believe, but if you'd like, you can pair it with a dollop of whipped cream or vanilla ice-cream or even some vanilla custard, depending on how the weather is in your part of the World.

 

 

Now, if only the weather would oblige....Have a lovely week ahead!!

Apple Pie

Back in school, when I did not know a spatula from a sieve, the big sister would be the one in the kitchen, rustling up a storm. She said it then and she says it now, "Cooking de-stresses me"! This was pre-Internet days and much before the onslaught of cookery programmes on TV. She would pour over all of my mother's old cookery books, searching for something new to try out. She was the family chef and yours truly was her willing guinea pig.

 

One of her most prized recipes those days, actually still is, was a simple apple pie. What seems simple now was at the time, special. My palate was very basic and the Indian food scene was very limited. Come to think of it, the only restaurant in Bombay that used to serve apple pie was probably, Gallops at the Racecourse! So, making apple pie at home was very special. And family, friends and anyone and everyone who had her pie, raved about it!

 

So, the other day when a friend asked me if I had an apple pie recipe up on the blog, I thought I give a shot at recreating the old favourite.

 

The construct of this recipe is simple. The crust is a short crust pastry dough and the filling is cut apple slices that have been tossed with some sugar, cinnamon and lemon juice.

 

Pulling it out of the oven, it hit me why this one will always be a family favourite. It is simple and unpretentious baking at its best. The warm, flaky buttery crust will always be a winner and when it encases that beautiful, cinnamon flavoured apple filling that has been zested up with a hit of lemon juice, it is destined to be a classic. Superlatives fall short on what a perfect combination apples and cinnamon are. The way it makes your kitchen smell is an added bonus!  

 

Earlier on the blog, I had made a French Apple Tart from the 'Baking with Julia' book. But, in that tart, the filling was an apple compote. Out here, the apple slices still have a slight bite to them which I personally much prefer.

 

Making this recipe took me back years. Every time I would ask my sister to bake me an apple pie, in return she would ask me to do something for her, like clean her room or something equally tormenting. What a bully! In defence of my easy subjugation, there are very few desserts more perfect than a well-made apple pie!

 

Strawberry Apple Crumble

Last weekend, the temperatures finally dipped. And with it came the window of opportunity for all things warm and cosy .. .. and that of course, goes for all things sweet!

 

And in my dictionary, nothing spells warm and cosy better than a well made fruit crumble!

 

 

Strawberries have made their appearance and you know I have a weakness when it comes to cooking with the fruit. But, I added some apples, for no other reason than I had two lying in the fruit basket with no one volunteering to finish them.

 

But, feel free to use any seasonal, soft fruit of your choice. Think plums, peaches, berries or even pears.

 

 

And for the crumble, instead of the traditional all flour topping, I went with a healthier option of oats and whole wheat, with a dash of cinnamon. I figured there are going to be more than enough calories consumed over the next two weeks!

 

 

What a rustic and homey dessert this is. As it bakes in the oven, you can smell the vanilla and cinnamon wafting about. The apple and strawberry mix stews into this luscious, red compote with a vanilla accent that threatens to flow over the edges. And it all hides beneath this buttery, toasty, golden brown crumble that is the perfect foil for all that warm, soft fruit. 

 

This is a beautifully comforting dessert that just seems to warm you all over!

 

 

It has been a horrific week. Just as we tried to make sense of the siege in Sydney, we were confronted by the mind-numbing, heart-wrenching images from Peshawar. No matter how hard I try, on this occasion, words fall short.

 

Whole Wheat Apple And Marmalade Cake

That I enjoy baking with the fruit of the season is something you've probably figured out by now. And I usually get my cue of what's in season, when the fruit gets seen everywhere from fruit stalls to roadside pavements to even, traffic signals.

From the tiny fruit in my mother's garden to mounds of the fruit on the pavements, oranges have been catching my eye for a while. Seeing it in such abundance had my inner Martha Stewart toying with the idea of making my very own batch of orange marmalade at home. I wasn't too fussy with the oranges I used. Simply went ahead with what was easily available in the market. The process is time consuming but nothing too complicated, especially if you have a candy thermometer, of which I am now a proud owner.

The marmalade turned out well for a first attempt. It had a beautiful colour, the peel remained suspended and did not sink to the bottom. It should have had a better consistency to cut through it and the purists would have pointed out that the bitter undertones should have been stronger. But, it worked well for me and everyone at home. And yes, indulge me with the cheesy, personalised label that I've used on the bottle! But, you've got to admit, it has its appeal! (Label Credit : Jam Labelizer)

But, I am not a jam/marmalade person. I enjoy it once in a while but it is not regular for my breakfast. So, while I pondered on how to get to the bottom of the bottle, I came across this cake in Nigel Slater's Ripe. He describes it as a 'good, reliable cake' that would be found in British village-fete cake stalls.

 

The flavour combinations sounded interesting and the cake used whole, wheat flour, a big tick mark in its favour. The cake comes together fairly easily. What I did differently was that I baked it in a loaf tin and omitted the raisins, simply, because I had none in the pantry at the time.

Reading through the recipe, you imagine a rustic looking cake and that is what you will get. This is not a cake for celebrations but perfect for your every-day, home baking. You can taste the orange and the cinnamon. The apples retain a slight bite although the skin did leach a bit and that is the pink that you see in the photographs. I did wonder if the whole wheat would yield a dry crumb but nothing of the sort. This cake was beautifully moist and it is recommended that you wait till it cools down completely, to let the flavours come through. And, it tastes even better the next day!!

This cake is a step towards the kind of baking I want to move towards. Baking with a healthier grain, with fruit and other healthier alternatives to traditional ingredients. But more than anything, this cake is what home baking is all about for me - rustic, no frills and full of flavour!!

 

French Apple Tart : 'TWD : Baking With Julia'

Nearly a month after I last baked with the 'TWD : Baking with Julia', I rejoin them this Tuesday with the French cousin of the Apple Pie, a French Apple Tart . Turns out the difference in title of the two desserts is more than just semantics. There is a technical difference between a pie and a tart. A pie with its crisp, flaky crust is much deeper than a tart and served straight from the pie dish. The tart is made in a pan with a removable bottom, only has a bottom crust and the goal a firm, crumbly crust. Honestly, for a non-purist like me, its more like "you say potato, I say potahto"!!

So, now that you've got your baking lesson of the day, we get back to the recipe on hand. The crust is made with the dough that we had used earlier to make this peach leaf pie. The filling is a cinnamon-apple compote that is then topped off with a beautiful, classic arrangement of dark-edged, paper thin apple slices that the French refer to as a 'rosette'.

 

Having worked with the dough before, the crust came together beautifully. The oven-roasted compote, too, is fuss-free and easy to prepare. The rosette, well, was a different story. The photographs say it all. "Quelle horreur, ma cherie!!", I can well imagine the reaction of a horrified patissier at my disastrous, clumsy attempt at recreating his beloved rosette. Instead, I take refuge in the words of Julia Child when it comes to imperfect food presentation. In her own words, "Never apologise, never explain". Amen!!

Apart from the look of the rosette, it all turned out beautifully. You had the buttery, firm crust that yielded to a creamy apple compote with lemon and cinnamon undertones. The thinly sliced, dark-edged apple slices on the top are a welcome textural change to the oven-roasted compote that lies beneath it. I am particularly partial to the combination of cinnamon and apples and went with an additional sprinkling of cinnamon powder on the rosette of apples.

But, here's the thing, there is nothing wrong with this apple tart. Each individual component turned out as it should. But, I think when it comes to the filling, I still prefer the all-apple slices filling of an apple pie as compared to this combination of apple compote with slices just on top. I seem to enjoy the bite of the apple slices much more than the texture of apple compote in my tart. Again, that's just my personal preference!! I'll leave it for you to decide on how you like your apple tart!!

A year ago: Venetian Carrot Cake

Apple Upside-Down Chiffon Cake : "TWD : Baking with Julia"

The good thing about the 'TWD : Baking with Julia' group, and I have said this before, is that it regularly pushes me out of my comfort zone and compels me to try out new techniques. I doubt I would have ever tried today's upside-down chiffon cake if the group hadn't chosen it for this fortnight's post. In my ignorance, I assumed it was one of those cakes that would require elaborate technique to achieve a chiffon-like texture and lightness, something I believed was beyond my patience threshold. And as always, I was wrong!!

Turns out, the chiffon cake gets its lightness by beating the egg whites to a meringue consistency which is then incorporated into the flour batter to lighten it. This is extremely important because the cake uses oil instead of butter and as oil cannot be whipped, the cake relies on the meringue to achieve its characteristic springy texture.

 

This particular recipe that we followed added a few 'bells and whistles' to a regular chiffon cake. At the bottom, we had a layer of fruit, melted butter and brown sugar that goes on to become a layer of caramelised fruit topping when this cake is turned upside down. There is also a crunchy, streusel layer of toasted nuts, oats and cinnamon that is centered between the two layers of the cake.

 

The recipe promised flavours of lemon, cinnamon, nuts and caramel. So when it came to choosing a fruit to substitute the nectarines, I went with apples, best friends with all the mentioned flavours.







Making this cake is not tough, it is just time-consuming to get all the components done. But worry not, for you will be well recompensed for all your efforts. The beauty of this cake is that no one flavour or component seeks to dominate or overwhelm your palate. On their own, each component will not please but when combined all together in this cake, it is a symphony of flavours and textures!!

 

Once cooled and unmoulded, the sweet, caramel fruit layer is never overpoweringly sweet as it is tempered by the nutty and cinnamon flavours and textures of the streusel. And bringing it all together, is that cake base that has a mellow, lemon flavour that compliments its light, springy texture. In fact, it is a hint of that lemon that stays with you in the after taste of this cake.

It took me an entire afternoon to get all the components of the cake done. I chose an afternoon when the weather played truant and I was forced indoors all day. Luckily for me, this cake is perfect for those days when the rain gods reign supreme. And then only a slice of this warm cake with its caramelised apples and toasty streusel served with a dollop of vanilla ice-cream can beat the weather blues away!!!