Last week, I made two killer apple cakes for Rosh Hashanna (September 27/28). The first is a tort that I modified from apple only to pear, nectarine, apple. The second is an apple nut coffee cake. Both are from the Toronto, golden oldie, Kinnereth Cookbook and both are super simple to make. I made a couple changes to the apple nut coffee cake. For starters I used vanilla low fat yogurt instead of sour cream. I also upped the apple quantity from 2 cups to 3 because I like more apples. Finally, I added raisins to topping mix and split up the batter like a normal coffee cake so there is a ribbon of topping in the middle in addition to on top. Pictures below- Any other good apple cakes out there? Please share!
Apple Nut Coffee Cake by Sheila Masters in the Kinnereth Cookbook
Cake:
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
2 eggs at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups sifted flour
1 tsp of baking powder and of baking soda
1/4 tsp of salt
1 cup sour cream (I used yogurt)
2 cups of chopped apples (I used three and a mix of different apples)
Topping:
1/2 cup chopped nuts (I used walnuts + pecans)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp of cinnamon (I used a lot more but didn’t measure)
2 tbsp of melted butter (which I omitted)
Instructions: Preheat the oven to 350 F (180C). Grease a 9″ springform pan. Cream together shortening and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla and beat well. Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture and alternate with yogurt or sour cream as you add dry ingreds. Fold in apples. Pour half the batter into cake pan, then sprinkle with half of the topping mixture. Then pour in the rest of the cake batter and top with remaining topping. Bake for 35-40 min. Let cool then remove from pan or freeze until use.
Apple/Nectarine/Pear Torte modified from the Kinnereth Blueberry Torte
Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter at room temp
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 egg
3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
Filling:
Enough ripe fruit to fill a 9″, 10″ or 11″ springform + 1 cup of sugar, 4-5 tbsp of flour, juice and rind of half a lemon + 2 tbsp of cinnamon (or more if you like cinnamony flavour)
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 350F (180C). Cream butter and shortening. Add sugar and cream well. Add beaten egg. Sift dry ingredients in a different bowl and then add to creamed mixture. Reserve 1 cup of this mixture somewhere because you will use it to crumble over the tort and form the topping. Pat the remainder of the dough in your springform and bring it as high up the sides you can (evenly)- leave about an inch to the top of your pan free of dough. Cut up all the fruit, and mix with flour, sugar, lemon rind/juice, cinnamon and then put it into the prepared pan. Sprinkle some more lemon juice on the fruit in the pan. Then go back to the cup you reserved, take some flour in your hands and add to the dough to make a crumble/streusel and sprinkle on top of fruit. Bake for 1 and 1/4 to 1.5 hours. Fruit should be bubbling and topping should be light brown. Let cool for a bit and then carefully remove from pan.
tort crust
ripe pears
tort dough consistency in cuisinart
the tort "middle" melange of fruit
tort with topping unbaked
topping covers almost the entire tort
lightly browned topping after it has been cooked
tort out of the pan
coffee cake just out of oven with raisin top
