The humble storage apple…and a cake in it’s honor.

Thursday, January 31, 2008

I, like so many others out there in the wide world, eagerly anticipate my monthly issue of Gourmet. Every day when I arrive home from work, I do the four-limbed dance of unlocking the door and carrying the bags as I attempt to step into the house and simultaneously prevent the cat from darting out of it. All the while my gloves are clamped between my teeth and I’m craning my neck to see if Gourmet has made it’s lovely, if not glamorous, arrival; unceremoniously folded around the bills and shoved through the letter slot.

Every once in a while, it has. And like so many other SEPTA commuters I use my train time to read and to daydream: “What shall I cook this evening?” “This weekend?” “In springtime?”

The truth is that this is a difficult time of year for the local-foodies. It seems that every dream recipe is calling for a different season from the one we’re in. Though Groundhog Day is yet to come, I’m betting on more than a few more weeks of Winter.

In the February issue of Gourmet, there is yet another example of learning to cook differently, this time from Lyon-born Algerian chef, Farid Zadi. “It’s easy to say, ‘Use ripe produce’...but what to do in February with turnips from storage?” Or apples? Or those carrots sprouting in the crisper? Zadi’s answer is to braise his turnips in butter (and what an answer it is!) and then sprinkle them with garlicky breadcrumbs, parsley and poppy seeds.

The best answer I’ve yet come up with for my storage apples is...cake! Once the novelty of applesauce has run out (usually mid-December), I have found no better way to console those bruised, wrinkling, steadfast apples than to slip them into a soothing cloak of cake batter. It’s a well known fact that butter and sugar can make up for a multitude of shortcomings. Plus, turning on the oven warms up the house!

The following recipe is my own not terribly sweet version of an apple bundt cake. They say that you should use firm apples for baking, but I generally use whatever kind I have hangin’ around and lookin’ sorry. We don’t discriminate in this household. Crispin not so crisp? Get in there! Macoun seen better days? You too! And so forth.

Those carrots sprouting in the crisper? We’ll tackle them on tomorrow’s subway ride.

Breakfast Apple Bundt Cake
3-4 apples, peeled, cored and diced
1 Tb. sugar
1 ts. cinnamon
3 Cups white flour, sifted (I’ve used two parts white to one part spelt and found the result to be slightly bitter, but go to town! It’s your cake, after all.)
3 ts. baking powder (or 3/4 ts. baking soda and 1 1/2 ts. cream of tartar if you’d like to make your own baking powder)
1/2 ts. salt
1 1/2 cups sugar (white, maple or brown- whatever combination you like)
1 cup clarified butter (or 1/2 cup butter and 1/2 cup yogurt)
1/4 cup orange juice (replace with just under 1/4 cup apple cider with a dash of apple cider vinegar)
2 1/2 ts. vanilla extract
4 eggs, gently beaten

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Butter and flour your bundt pan if you have one. Or your 9” cake pans if you don’t.
2. Mix the apples with 1 Tb. sugar and 1 ts. cinnamon and set aside.
3. Whisk together dry ingredients in a large bowl and the clarified butter, eggs, juice and vanilla in another, smaller bowl.
4. Fold all ingredients together, gently incorporating wet into dry, followed by apples into batter.
5. Pour into your prepared pan(s) and bake 45-60 minutes turning once to ensure even coloring.
6. Allow to cool for at least an hour in the pan.
7. Place a plate over the pan and invert to release. Sprinkle powdered sugar over top to emulate snow flurries outside.
8. Cut hearty slices and enjoy for breakfast.