Autumn - Normandie Apple Cake

Normandy Apple Cake

You've heard of Dorset Apple cake, although a quick scan of my bookshelves reveals no unanimity regarding ingredients. However, this is one cake that I've researched thoroughly and tested for you and that we can definitely claim as our own in Normandie. It's only connection to Dorset is the germ of an idea. 

 

I wanted a recipe that would be easy to do - an all-in-one batter, no peeling of apples, and using local ingredients. Although walnut trees are common in this region I have no walnuts of my own and am deeply jealous of those who have. I regard them as absolutely essential to autumn baking. Many cakes suffer with dryness and that would never do for this, so I used Cidre Bouché Normande to ensure the batter has the softest of textures. 

 

The apples (a quintessentially Norman ingredient) are eating apples, red skinned, washed, DRIED, cored and diced. Dried because you don't want them to sink. Do it at the last minute so they don't brown and you won't then need lemon juice. (I diced mine whilst the batter was in the mixer). Don't peel them - they retain their texture (and add fibre and colour) better this way. This isn't the time for Bramleys - completely the wrong flavour and texture. I used a local eating apple, but failed to remember which variety.

 

Spices are my passion and in this case I've chosen the slightly exotic fragrance of Melange Pain d'Epices, that wonderful sweet bread so much part of Christmas festivities here and served with foie gras in particular. The brand i use (Eric Bur) includes the usual cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, but also star anise, black pepper, cardamom, coriander. and sweet paprika. A much more complex range of flavours than UK mixed spice. 

Ingredients

230 g butter (very soft)

230 g Self-raising flour (farine a gateau)

1 tspn baking powder

230g soft light brown sugar (Sucre viergoise blonde)

4 eggs

pinch of salt

1 tspn Melange pain d'epices

100 ml cidre

4 eating apples washed, dried, cored and chopped into 1cm dice.

50g chopped walnuts. How finely is up to you.

 

Method

Preheat the oven to 160c. Prepare either a bundt tin (this quantity will not quite fill a standard NordicWare pan) or a round 20cm cake tin. Grease and flour well. (I didn't, I suffered),

 

Place the butter, flour, baking powder, sugar, eggs, salt and spice mix into the bowl of your stand mixer (or use a hand mixer). Beat for at least two minutes, adding cider until you have a soft dropping consistency.  Then add the prepared apples and walnuts. Spoon into your prepared pan and bake at 160c for one hour. Test at the end of cooking time to ensure there is no uncooked batter on your skewer. Allow to rest for 10 minutes before turning the cake out onto a rack to cool. 

Serve with the tea/coffee of your choice. In the morning it will be wonderful with a café au lait and reminds me of pumpkin spiced lattes grabbed on the way into work. 

 

You will notice I haven't posted a picture of the entire cake this time. I admit I failed to prep my tin sufficiently and it came out in two pieces. Not a disaster (except to the ego), but a warning to all. If I were using a round tin, I would bottom line with parchment. As it is I prefer a bundt tin for this recipe so will grease AND flour next time. There will be a next time!

 

 

Garlic Tear & Share Bread

Garlic Tear & Share Bread

 Bread is such a wonderful thing. From a sandwich to bread & butter pudding, so much from one relatively simple recipe. I make bread weekly. I've given up sourdough because much as i love it, the other member of the household doesn't and I don't eat vast quantities of bread anyway. Now I generally make a fairly pedestrian white loaf, with rolls, garlic bread or buns as an added extra. I made some cheesy tear & share bread a couple of weeks ago and it was very popular so here's the method. I won't say recipe, because this can be made with any bread mixture you prefer.

Take about 300g flour and make a plain white bread dough however you normally do it. Give it the first rise then knock it back. Next take 125g butter and melt it in a pan. Grate one or two cloves of garlic into it (depending how garlicky you like it) and season with salt & pepper. Stir the butter on the heat - don't so much cook the garlic as flavour the butter. Brush butter into a 20cm square pan. Now make 16 small balls out of your dough. Using a slotted spoon, roll each one in the melted butter and arrange them 4 x 4 in the pan. Any remaining butter & garlic mix should be poured over the top. Don't worry if it looks seriously overbuttered, any excess will be absorbed by the baking bread. Sprinkle liberally with up to 100g grated parmesan (or strong Cheddar, Cantal or Emmenthal) cheese. At this stage your doughballs will look a bit 'socially distanced' in the pan. Don't worry, the second rise will take care of that. You can either leave the pan in the warm for about an hour before baking, or (as I did prepping for a barbecue) you can put it in the fridge until  later in the day. In this case just take it out half an hour before you want to bake it. Pre-heat your oven to 180c and bake your bread for 30 minutes. It will be well risen and golden. 

 

Any leftovers can be frozen in foil for reheating another day. I freeze them in twos to add extra interest to pasta dishes. As you can see in the pictures above, I sometimes make a smaller quantity when I'm doing a weekly bake and use a smaller dish. This is a great way of serving bread with a meal and does an excellent job of soaking up the juices. I mentioned I'd used it at a barbecue and it is a delicious addition to grilled meat & salads.

Brownies

I always want to go into raptures about American home baking, because it is something than America has always done so well. Cookies, biscuits, cakes, breads, there is a world of good baking which originates from America. Well, maybe not originates exactly because most of it has German, French, Scandinavian, Italian roots depending on where settler families set out from, but it has been perfected there. Some recipes, such as cornbread (there is nothing better with chili) owe a great debt to the lifesaving skills taught to the first settlers by Native Americans. But the quintessential American baking recipe is the brownie. 

I don't know why I haven't written this post before. Possibly because brownies are such a staple of the domestic cook's repertoire that I assumed everyone knew how to make them. It turns out they don't. Or, at least, not the way I do it. Which I'm going to be a bit snobby about because this recipe makes the best, squidgiest, chocolatiest brownies in the world. The origins of this recipe lie in the wonderful Sainsbury's recipe books of the 1980s. Written largely by Josceline Dimbleby, they featured heavily in my culinary education, being the books my mother always had to hand, along with the Dairy Book of Home Cooking and the Readers' Digest Cookery Year. I still have half a dozen on my shelves, although SOMEONE ELSE HAS THE ONE ABOUT AMERICAN BAKING, which is where this recipe originates.

The secret of this recipe isn't in the ingredients, which are simple enough, but in the method. Take the butter and melt it gently with the cocoa. it doesn't need melted chocolate of anything else, but melting the butter and cocoa together releases the chocolatiness of the cocoa in a way nothing else will match. The other secret is whisking the eggs and sugar together until they are light, fluffy and doubled in volume. This process also melts the sugar slightly (friction) so that you get that illusive crispy crust on top. Take your time. Don't hurry this recipe (although if you have to...). Allow time for the melting to happen and then to begin to cool. Then allow time for the eggs and sugar to achieve fluffy lightness. Then add flour. That is all. How much flour depends on what you're adding to your brownes. If chocolate chips and nuts, then only fifty grams to get stickiness and moisture in the finished brownie. If, however, you're going for the midsummer gloriousness of Black Forest brownies, then 100g will give more body to support the moist fruit.

Ingredients

250g unsalted butter

100g cocoa

a teaspoon of vanilla or almond essence (the good stuff) if you wish

200g caster sugar

3 eggs

50g (to 100g) Self Raising flour (or plain with your usual baking powder amount). Extra flour will make a slightly firmer brownie and this will better support fresh fruit.

50g walnuts, pecans or whatever you enjoy

50g chocolate chips which could be plain, milk, white or a mixture

or 100g chocolate chips if you're making them for my children

or

a generous mugful of washed, stoned, halved cherries

Method

Preheat your oven to 180c.  Prepare a pan, with oil & flour if needed. Mine is a 20cm silicone with a metal frame for convenience and has the advantage of not needing much prep.

Melt the butter and cocoa together in a pan, stirring until perfectly smooth. I don't use the mircrowave for this - there is too much danger of overheating and irretrievable lumpiness. Leave the mixture to one side to cool a little. You can add any flavourings you like at this stage. a teaspoon of vanilla extract, or almond if you're using cherries.

Whisk the sugar and eggs together until well risen and light.

Gently fold the chocolate mix into the eggs & sugar until completely combined. Then fold the flour in, gently but firmly until smooth. Add nuts, chocolate, or cherries.

Bake for 30 minutes until it is cooked at the edges and still a bit sticky in the centre. Then cool before cutting into squares. I find this amount makes sixteen perfectly sized brownies. My only decoration for these is a sifting of icing sugar.

You can very easily double this recipe to feed a crowd, using a larger square or oblong pan.

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