French Fridays With Dorie: Marie-Helene's Apple Cake

 I'm ashamed to say that I've really fallen behind in my attempt to cook along with my fellow French Fridays With Dorie friends (wow, that's a lot of Fs). I remember being so proud of myself having baked this Apple Cake (which is delicious, by the by) a full two weeks in advance of its date on the schedule -- and then I failed to post an entry.

Then I let November slip by with nary a recipe made -- and there were some good ones, too! Pumpkin-Gorgonzola Flans, Potato Gratin, Caramel-Topped Semolina Cake....uh, yum!! Anyway, I plan to make all of these at some point, and in the meantime December is a new month, and hopefully I can get myself back in the game -- it's looking like the four recipes for the month will be Sweet and Spicy Cocktail Nuts, Beef Daube, Leek and Potato Soup, and Speculoos. Holiday-appropriate, no?

Back to Marie-Helene's Apple Cake -- as you can see by the photo it is rammed with apples. I used a variety, as I'd been apple picking not long before and had no less than six different kinds in my fridge. This cake is lovely in that it's not overly sweet, and it stayed moist for several days. The dark rum added a deeper flavour and richness that I liked. I would add cinnamon next time, as I can't get enough of the apple-cinnamon combination.

Pecan Molasses Bundt Cake with Bourbon Glaze

Made this cake recently and it was delicious -- unfortunately I didn't grab a shot of an individual slice to capture the dark and light cake layers. It was gobbled up too quickly! The warmed-up bourbon sauce is truly the crowning touch.

If you want to add fruit to this dessert, pineapple is a good choice.

Pecan Molasses Bundt Cake with Bourbon Glaze
Bon Appetit | March 2003

Cake:

Nonstick vegetable oil spray
3 1/4 cups cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
4 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 large eggs
1 cup whole milk


1 cup pecans, toasted, finely chopped
1/4 cup dark corn syrup
1/4 cup mild-flavored (light) molasses
1/2 teaspoon baking soda


Glaze:

2 teaspoons water
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups sugar
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
2 teaspoons dark corn syrup
1/2 cup bourbon
2 teaspoons vanilla extract


Vanilla ice cream


For cake:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray 10-inch-diameter Bundt pan with nonstick spray; dust with flour. Sift 3 1/4 cups flour, baking powder, and salt into medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat sugar, butter, and 2 teaspoons vanilla in large bowl until fluffy. Beat in eggs 1 at a time. Beat in flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with milk in 2 additions. Transfer half of batter to prepared pan.

Stir pecans, corn syrup, molasses, and 2 teaspoons vanilla in another medium bowl to blend. Stir in baking soda. Stir pecan mixture into remaining cake batter in bowl. Spoon pecan batter over batter in pan (do not swirl). Bake until tester inserted near center of cake comes out with dry crumbs attached, about 50 minutes. Transfer cake in pan to rack.

Meanwhile, prepare glaze:

Stir 2 teaspoons water and baking soda in small bowl to dissolve baking soda. Bring sugar, buttermilk, butter, and corn syrup to boil in heavy 6-quart saucepan over high heat, stirring to dissolve sugar and melt butter. Reduce heat to medium-high. Stir in baking soda mixture (glaze will bubble). Boil until sauce is golden and slightly thickened, stirring often, about 8 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in bourbon and vanilla.

Invert warm cake onto platter. Immediately brush 1 1/2 cups hot glaze over cake, allowing glaze to soak into cake. Cool cake completely. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and let stand at room temperature. Cover and refrigerate remaining glaze.)

Rewarm remaining glaze, stirring. Serve cake with ice cream and warm glaze.

Email: plumtartblog@gmail.com

Olive Oil and Orange Cake

I've always been intrigued by the idea of baking with olive oil, which is why I decided to try this recipe of Mario Batali's for Olive Oil and Orange Cake. Wow, it is delicious. Not too sweet, and it could just as easily serve as a morning treat with coffee as an after-dinner dessert.

Mario recommends serving it with whipped cream, creme fraiche, or yogurt. I opted for thick, plain yogurt and some lemon zest. The cool sourness of the yogurt worked incredibly well against the dense, citrus-spiked still-warm cake. I polished off the whole thing single-handedly in under a week.

Olive Oil and Orange Cake

Makes 6-8 servings

6 medium oranges
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
4 large eggs
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder

Preheat the oven to 350F. Oil a 9-inch round cake pan.

Using a grater, zest all the oranges, and juice one of the oranges. (Reserve the fruit for another use.) In a small bowl, combine the zest, juice and olive oil. Set aside.

In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, beat the eggs and salt until frothy and light, about 2 minutes. Slowly beat in the sugar, and continue to mix until pale and thick, about 2 minutes more.

Sift the flour and baking soda together, and gradually beat into the egg mixture. Fold in the citrus zest mixture just until incorporated.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool on a rack for 10 minutes, then remove from the pan and cool to room temperature.

Courtesy Molto Italiano, Mario Batali, HarperCollins, 2005

Could these desserts be any more decadent?

Last week my colleague Erin was kind enough to bring some of the peanut butter chocolate cake she'd baked to the office to share. A sour cream chocolate cake to start, covered in peanut butter frosting, and then glazed with peanut butter-chocolate ganache. My God, was it good, and sinfully rich (recipe here, if I've piqued your interest).

Courtesy Editor at Large

It got me thinking about some of the amazing desserts I've tried over the years -- some made my friends and/or family, others made by yours truly. My friend Olga is an incredible baker, and her baklava is to die for. Perhaps I will see if she'd be willing to share her secret recipe in an upcoming post. She also once made a lemon mascarpone cheesecake that was published in the LCBO's Food and Drink magazine. That recipe is available here and if you have company coming over it not only tastes delicious but it looks impressive. The trick, I recall Olga telling me at the time as I swooned over the silky texture of the cake, is to beat the cream cheese for a long time. Patience is most definitely rewarded in this case.

I think my love of baking comes from my mom, who was always baking when my sister and I were kids. From apple pies to pecan pies, squares of all varieties (my favourites were the turtle bars and mint chocolate squares), cookies, homemade sheet cakes for our birthdays (chocolate cake and chocolate icing more often than not, although she switched to mocha icing at one point, which was also delish). But my favourite 'Mom' dessert is also probably one of the simplest -- fruit crumble. A base of mixed berries, or apples, sometimes peaches in the height of summer, covered with a layer of butter oats and flour, spiked with cinnamon and nutmeg, baked in the over until the fruit is bubbling and the topping crisp and golden. With a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side it's the most comforting of comfort foods. Rustic, and uncomplicated.

I've made some interesting desserts over the years -- last year I made a Marsala wine-spiked mocha semifreddo that was quite delicious and surprisingly light-feeling, given the amount of cream involved. I also made a chocolate amaretti cake that had a crust ever so light and crisp, giving way to a moist, dense filling. Part cookie, part cake, and entirely scrumptious.

With friends coming over for dinner on Saturday I'm thinking it's time to attempt another challenging dessert. But what? A few recipes have caught my eye, including:

1) Chocolate Caramel Tart (from the latest edition of Saveur) - this is Saveur's cover recipe this month and it looks mouth-wateringly good. It's taken from the menu of Brooklyn's Marlow & Sons, one of the restaurants featured in the issue.

2) Coffee-Chocolate Layer Cake with Mascarpone Frosting (from Bon Appetit) - I see two problems with making this spectacularly rich-looking cake. 1) My friends aren't coffee drinkers. 2) There's no way the frosting would survive long enough to end up on the cake. Me. A spoon. End of story.

3) Tropical Carrot Cake with Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting (also from Bon Appetit) - I admit it, I'm a sucker for cream cheese frosting. Was there ever a time that carrot cake was eaten without it? I don't even want to imagine it.

4) Strawberry Mascarpone Tart with Port Glaze (from Gourmet) - Are you sensing a cream cheese theme here? Yes, I think I'm leaning in that direction. Although spring is here and part of me is looking for light options, I can have fruit salad any day of the week. That said, there's fruit in this dish, so it's not all bad, right?

At this point I'm still undecided - make one of these lovelies, or go another direction entirely. What are your thoughts? Do you have an out-of-this-world dessert recipe you'd like to share? If so comment below or drop me a note at suzannekathrynellis@gmail.com.

Salut!

Suzanne