apple vanilla pound cake

apple vanilla pound cake

23 Nov 2020

I'd planned on making an apple pie this weekend but lost my pie making mojo and decided to make an apple cake instead. I've become a big fan of Joanne Chang's recipe and found this recipe for an apple vanilla pound cake on her IG live series. It uses an unusual technique, so I wanted to give it a try.

I had everything I needed in my pantry so quickly whipped up the loaf (literally) on Saturday morning.

The cake was easy to make and the batter tasted lovely.

All the cake needed was a light dusting of icing sugar before serving. Here's the recipe for you which makes a small loaf cake. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.

Apple vanilla pound cake - Makes 1 loaf
Ingredients
120 g unsalted butter
½ tsp vanilla bean paste
45 mls cream
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

1 medium granny smith apple, peeled and thinly sliced

1 tsp lemon juice

3 large eggs
¾ cup caster sugar
1¼ cups plain flour, sifted (sift after measuring)
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon icing sugar, for garnish
 
Method
Heat the oven to 180°C and place a rack in the centre of the oven. Line a small loaf tin with baking paper.
 
In a small pan, melt the butter. Add the vanilla bean paste to the butter. Whisk in the cream and vanilla extract and set aside to let the mixture come to room temperature.

In a small bowl combine the apple slices with the lemon juice and set to one side.
 
In a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, whip together the eggs and sugar until thick and lemony coloured, 4 to 5 minutes on medium high speed. While the eggs and sugar are whipping, sift and stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt. When the egg-sugar mixture is thick, add the dry ingredients and gently fold by hand using a rubber spatula.
 
Spoon a few large spoonfuls of the batter into the butter-cream mixture and stir to combine well. Once the butter-cream mixture is lightened, add it all into the batter and fold until completely combined.
 
Scoop into the prepared loaf pan. Layer the apples across the top in 2-3 rows. Bake in the preheated oven for 50 to 60 minutes until the pound cake is golden brown on top and firm when you press it in the middle. Remove the cake from the oven and let cool.

Sift a bit of icing sugar on top to finish off the cake and slice and serve. Use a very sharp serrated knife to gently slice through the apples. Pound cake may be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days.

I'm planning to remake this using the classic butter creaming method and let you know which method produced the best cake. 

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen. 

Bye for now, Jillian

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plate 2 plate - ottolenghi's lentils, radicchio and walnuts with manuka honey

plate 2 plate - ottolenghi's lentils, radicchio and walnuts with manuka honey

16 Feb 2015

Hi every-one and welcome to the first Plate 2 Plate post for 2015. Juliana and I both thought it was high time to make a salad so we turned to Ottolenghi's new book, Plenty More, for inspiration. As you know, I'm a bit of an Ottolenghi fan girl so I was keen to try out his new book. We mulled over a few recipes before coming across this lentil dish topped with radicchio, spicy walnuts and a tumble of herbs. The lentil image is by Juliana.




As Juliana lives in Switzerland and I live in Sydney it can be quite difficult finding ingredients that are in season in both places. Thankfully fresh herbs and lentils are always available. Herb photo by Juliana.




Here's my take.



I had most of the ingredients in my cupboard and when I found that radicchio was available in my local fruit shop we both knew we had our recipe.


I've made this dish twice so far mainly because I burnt the walnuts the first time round. The second time I made the dish, I lowered the oven temperature to 160°C and watched the walnuts like a hawk.




Once cooled, these walnuts are so yummy I think only half made their way into the salad. Here's my version of the finished dish.



I don't tolerate cheese all that well so I left it out of the dish. Instead I served it as a side dish with some lamb. Here's Juliana's version of the dish.





Here's another image of the finished dish from Juliana.



The lentils and walnuts can be made well ahead of time and the dish put together in just a few minutes topped with loads of fresh herbs. Apart from the dill, all the herbs I used in the dish were grown on my window ledge.




Here's the recipe for you from Plenty More by Yotam Ottolenghi. As this is a UK recipe, remember to use a 15 ml tablespoon. Image by Juliana.




Lentils, Radicchio and Walnuts with Manuka Honey

200g puy lentils
2 bay leaves
100g manuka honey
¼ tsp flaked chilli
½ tsp ground turmeric
Salt and black pepper
About 1 tsp water
3 tbsp red-wine vinegar
90ml olive oil
100g walnuts
½ medium-size radicchio
60g pecorino fiore sardo, or other mature ewe's or goat's cheese
20g each roughly chopped basil, dill and parsley

Heat the oven to 170°C/325°F. Put the lentils in a medium saucepan, cover with plenty of water, add the bay leaves and simmer for 15 minutes, or until tender.

While the lentils cook, prepare the walnuts. In a bowl, combine half the honey, the chilli, turmeric and a quarter-teaspoon of salt, and add enough water to create a thick paste.

Drain the lentils and return to the pan. Whisk together the vinegar, half the oil, the remaining honey, half a teaspoon of salt and some black pepper until the honey dissolves. Stir into the lentils while they're still hot and then leave to cool a little. Discard the bay leaves.

Add the walnuts to the honey/chilli paste and stir to coat. Spread on a baking sheet lined with baking paper and roast for 15-20 minutes, stirring once, until crunchy and dry, but still sticky.

Pour the remaining oil into a medium frying pan and place on high heat. Cut the radicchio into eight wedges and place these in the hot oil, sprinkling them with a little salt. Cook for a minute on each side and then transfer into a large bowl.

Add the lentils, walnuts, sliced pecorino and herbs. Stir gently, taste and season accordingly. Serve warmish or at room temperature.




As you expect from an Ottolenghi recipe, the dish zings with flavours - sweetness from the honey; bitterness from the radicchio; crunch from the walnuts; zing from the chilli and sour from the vinegar in the dressing. Just about perfect really. You can read Juliana's thoughts about the salad here.

See you all again next week with something sweet.

Jillian

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little chocolate pecan pies

little chocolate pecan pies

23 Sept 2013

I've been making some sort of version of this recipe for 20 years now and I haven't stopped tweaking it yet. Here's the latest version made with my favourite chocolate pastry recipe from Isidora Popovic's book, Popina Book of Baking. 



I had a little light corn syrup in the pantry but not quite enough and I could only find dark corn syrup at the shops so that's what I used. I've often made the filling with a combination of sugars but I've never used dark corn syrup before. I was curious to find out how it would affect the finished product.



Pecans are one of my favourite nuts and to bring out the flavour I always toast them in a moderate oven for about 10 minutes.



Now I don't normally blind bake pastry cases when making pecan pie but 2 of the pies suffered badly from soggy bottoms so I might think about doing so next time I make these.



Normally I glaze the pies with a kind of ganache but this time I just used melted chocolate. I'd love to claim it as my own idea, but I saw it in the Delicious Magazine 2013 Diary and thought what a good idea.



I met a friend for dinner last weekend and took along a few of the little pecan pies. I shared a few with my neighbours and took the rest into work.



Here's the recipe for you.
Chocolate Shortcrust Pastry
225 g (8 oz) plain flour
25 gm (¼ cup) cocoa
125 g (4½ oz) unsalted butter chilled and cubed
85 g (3 oz) caster sugar
1 egg, beaten

Place the flour, cocoa, butter and sugar in a food processor and process until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Gradually add the beaten egg until the dough starts to gather around the blade of the processor. Remove the dough and bring together into a ball. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 30 minutes. 

Roll the dough on a lightly floured surface until 3-4mm thick. Line 8 tart tins with the chocolate short crust pastry and trim the excess dough neatly around the edges. You won’t need all the pastry so freeze the leftovers for later use. Refrigerate the lined tins for another 20 minutes. 

If you want to blind bake the tart shells first to prevent them getting soggy bottoms, preheat the oven to 180˚C (350˚F) then prick the pastry with a fork to prevent rising. I line the tins with paper cup cake liners before filling each tin with baking weights.  Place the tart tins onto a baking tray and bake for 10-15 minutes or until the edges of the pastry are browned. Carefully remove the lining paper and baking weights and allow the tart shells to cool before filling.  

If you don't pre-bake the pastry, just follow the instructions below.   

Filling 

2 eggs 

⅔ cup sugar (I used a combination of light brown sugar and caster sugar)

1 tablespoons corn flour (optional) 

2 tablespoons melted butter 

1 teaspoon vanilla 

⅔ cup corn syrup (I used a combination of light and dark) 

1¼ cups toasted pecans, roughly chopped   

Preheat the oven to 180˚C (350˚F). Place the pecans over the base of the tart shells. Lightly beat the eggs with the sugars until combined. Add the melted butter, vanilla, the corn syrup and corn flour (if using) and mix until the mixture is well combined. Gently pour the filling over the pecans. The pecans will rise to the top.

Place the tins on a baking tray and place in the preheated oven. Bake the little pies for 45-55 minutes at 180˚C (350˚F ) until the tops are well browned and the filling is set. Remove the pies from the oven and cool on a wire rack.   

Topping 
55 g (2 oz) dark chocolate, roughly chopped

Place the chocolate in a small bowl over barely simmering water. Mix well until the chocolate has melted and the mixture is smooth. Remove the basin from the heat and drizzle the chocolate decoratively over the tops of the pies. You can use a teaspoon to do this or you can fill a small plastic bag with the chocolate and snip the corner off to make a piping bag. Allow the chocolate to set before serving.

The verdict? Absolutely scrumptious and when I was asked for the recipe, I knew I was on a winner.

I hope you enjoy them,

Jillian

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quince and nut cake

quince and nut cake

27 May 2013

Autumn has finally hit Sydney with a couple of wet and miserable days. You can tell because people have been searching my blog for recipes for hearty food like lamb shank soup (I just made a batch myself) and lemon delicious pudding. Once I get my act into gear I'll start posting some more wintery recipes.

I poached another batch of quince last weekend and decided to make a quince and nut cake from Stephanie Alexander's book, The Cook's Companion. I made the cake to soften the blow of returning to work.



I altered the recipe a teeny tiny bit by leaving out the allspice and adding some yoghurt to thin out the batter. I also toasted the pecans for 10 minutes before breaking them up a bit because toasted pecans have so much more flavour.



The quince tinted the cake batter a very pretty pale pink. This cake is a melt and mix cake and I'm not a huge fan of that method. The batter was really thick hence the addition of the yoghurt cos no-one likes a dry cake. I was a teensy bit anxious as to how the cake would turn out.



Here's the recipe for you adapted from The Cooks Companion
Ingredients
375 g plain flour 
2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
2 heaped teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 cup (125 g) roughly chopped pecans
2 cups poached quince, mashed
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
250 g unsalted butter, melted and cooled completely
½ cup yoghurt (optional)
Icing sugar and cream, to serve.

Method
Line the base of a 23 cm spring form pan with baking paper. Grease and flour the tin. Preheat the oven to 180°C. 

Sift the flour, soda and cinnamon together in a bowl. Stir in the nuts.  In a large bowl, stir together the quince and the sugar. Whisk the eggs into the cooled butter and then gently stir this into the quince mixture. Add in the flour mixture and mix until combined. If the mixture seems too dry, add the yoghurt until the desired consistency is achieved.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin then bake for 55-65 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Cool the cake in the tin. When cool, unmould the cake and sprinkle with icing sugar before serving.



The gang seemed to enjoy the cake and I'll certainly make it again. Next time I'll cream the butter and sugar first (I just prefer the texture) and I'm going to use grated apple instead of quince. I think it would make a nice winter dessert topped with ice cream or a big dollop of cream, or both.

I survived my first week back at work but only just. My poor immune system couldn't cope with all those hospital bugs and after only 2 days back at work I caught a cold so I've spent all weekend coughing and spluttering. I must have been missed though because my workmates gave me a huge bunch of flowers.

I hope your weekend was a bit better than mine.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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oven poached quince

oven poached quince

15 May 2013

Autumn brings with it pears, quince and chestnuts. 



When I saw quince in the fruit market I brought a few home with me. I decided to poach them and dived into my copy of Stephanie Alexanders 'The Cooks Companion' for a recipe.



Quince are tough little numbers so you need a sharp knife to deal with them. Some people pot roast them whole but I find trying to remove the peel, seeds and core from the cooked quince a bit too fiddly for my liking.



Quince are inedible unless cooked and they need long slow cooking. As they cook they change colour from pale green to a rich ruby red. I initially cooked the quince for 2 hours and although they were cooked I wanted them to be ruby red, so I continued cooking them for a further 2 hours. You can see how the colour changes with cooking time.



Here's the recipe for you and it's beauty is in it's simplicity.
Stephanie's poached quince
6 quinces, washed and peeled
2.25 litres light sugar syrup
1 vanilla bean
juice of 1 lemon

To make the light sugar syrup, heat 2 parts water to 1 part sugar and stir until the sugar has dissolved.

Preheat oven to 150°C. Cut quinces into quarters or sixths. Cut out cores and tie loosely in a piece of muslin. Put sugar syrup in a cast-iron pot with vanilla bean, lemon juice and muslin bag, then add quince. Cover tightly and bake in oven for at least 4 (and up to 8) hours until quince is deep red. Do not stir or the quince may break up.

Split the vanilla bean and scrape seeds into the syrup. I reduced the syrup over a medium heat for about 10 minutes. Cool the quince in the syrup.  



I can't really describe the taste of quince. It really is unique. So far I've eaten the poached fruit with some stewed apple and yoghurt and I've served it with  pannacotta. I found a recipe for quince cake that I'm dying to try so if I get round to making it, I'll share that with you.

See you all again soon,

Jillian

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hazelnut and chocolate hearts

hazelnut and chocolate hearts

13 Feb 2013

When I was at high school I used to work weekends in a flower shop called Twigs of Ascot. I loved working there and my favourite days were the busy days like Mother's Day and Valentine's Day. I can't tell you how many rose cylinders I filled on Valentine's Day topped with curly red ribbons. I wonder if rose cylinders are still in fashion?

Instead of red roses, I've gone a bit Miss Haversham this Valentine's Day with some well past their prime hydrangeas. That's what happens to hydrangeas when it's 46°C outside. 



For Valentine's Day, I knew exactly what I wanted to make - some very rich hazelnut and chocolate hearts.



I took out my heart shaped cutter and went a bit wild.



I can't remember the last time I made a chain of hearts.



The final product - some very chocolatey morsels, just perfect for Valentine's Day or when ever the need for chocolate strikes.



Here's the recipe for you, adapted from Maureen Simpson's book, Australian Cuisine.
Hazelnut and Chocolate Cakes
Base
3 egg whites
⅓ cup caster sugar
1 cup hazelnut meal
1 tablespoon potato flour (starch)

Topping
100 gm (3½ oz) dark chocolate, chopped
1½ tablespoons water
¼ level teaspoon instant coffee powder
90 gm (3 oz) unsalted butter
¼ cup caster sugar
3 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla
Optional - cocoa powder

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Line the base and sides of a 20 cm (8 inch) square tin with baking paper. In a medium size bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff, then gradually add the sugar until a stiff meringue forms. Fold through the hazelnut meal and the flour. Put into the prepared cake tin and gently spread the mixture evenly into the corners of the tin. Bake for 25-30 minutes until the mixture starts to shrink away from the edge of the tin.

While the cake is cooking, prepare the next layer. Melt the chopped chocolate with the water and the instant coffee in a small bowl over a basin of simmering water, then put to one side. Cream the butter and sugar. Add the egg yolks, the vanilla and the melted chocolate mixture. Pour the chocolate topping over the hazelnut sponge.

Return to the oven and bake for a further 20 - 30 minutes until the topping is just set. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin before cutting into small squares or heart shapes, if desired. You can lightly dust these with cocoa powder before serving.

Happy Valentine's Day!

See you all again next week,


Jillian

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the christmas collection 2012 - traditional christmas cake

the christmas collection 2012 - traditional christmas cake

21 Dec 2012

I’ve been making some form of Christmas Cake since I was 16. Once I found this recipe, which I adapted from a recipe I found in the Good Cook, Cakes and Pastries book published by Time Life, the finished cake was so moist and fruity there was no reason to look for another.



Now I realise not all countries have adopted the fruit cake with as much enthusiasm as the UK and other Commonwealth countries. I think that’s a bit of a shame, as a well made fruit cake is a lovely thing. A badly made fruit cake, I agree, is a bit of a nightmare. The cake is baked for a long time in a low oven, so protecting the cake from the heat is really important otherwise you'll end up with a dry cake.



I’d love to say that the recipe is foolproof, because it’s not. You all know about the blue vein version I made one very hot and steamy summer when I put sour cherries into the fruit mix and they soaked up just a bit too much liquid.



There was also the fruit brick I made when I was living in Edmonton. The combination of altitude, an unfamiliar oven and different  types of dried fruit resulted in an expensive failure but you should get a good result if you follow the instructions to the letter. I normally make the cake about 4 weeks before Christmas to allow it time to mature. The longer the cake matures, the darker and richer the cake will be and the house will be filled with the smells of Christmas.

You'll need to start this recipe the night before.
Traditional Christmas Cake (makes one 17 cm cake)
printable version
50 gm (2 oz), finely chopped mixed peel
50 gm (2 oz) dates, chopped
190 gm (6½ oz) sultanas
190 gm (6½ oz) currants
125 gm (4 oz) raisins, chopped
50 gm (2 oz) almonds, blanched and chopped
125 gm (4 oz) unsalted butter
½ cup (125 gm) (4 oz) brown sugar
grated rind of ½ orange and ½ lemon
2 eggs lightly beaten
1 cup (135 gm) plain flour
¼ teaspoon each mixed spice and nutmeg
3 tablespoons rum or brandy
Additional almonds to decorate the cake

The night before, thoroughly wash the dried fruit. Place in a bowl and add the rum. Cover and leave to soak overnight.

Preheat the oven to 170ºC/325ºF. Line a 17 cm round tin with a layer of greased greaseproof paper. Tie a band of brown paper or folded newspaper round the outside of the tin for extra protection. Place the prepared tin on a sheet of folded newspaper on a baking tray.

Cream the butter and the sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the grated rinds. Sift the flour and spices together. Gradually add the eggs with a sprinkling of flour to stop the mixture curdling. Stir in the remaining sifted flour. Lastly stir in the soaked fruit and chopped nuts.Turn the batter into the lined tin and hollow out the centre of the cake a little to prevent rising. Decorate the cake with the remaining almonds and cover the top of the cake with a piece of greaseproof paper to prevent it from browning too fast.

Put the cake into the preheated oven for 20 minutes, before reducing the heat to 150ºC/300ºF. Bake a further 40 minutes then reduce the heat to 140ºC/275ºF for the rest of the cooking time. The cake will need a total of 2 – 3 hours baking time. The cake is cooked when it stops “humming”. Allow the cake to cool thoroughly before turning out.



When cool, I pour additional rum over the cake before wrapping it plastic wrap and placing the cake into a well sealed storage tin.



I normally make a 23 cm/9 inch cake using double the mixture but this year I made 2 smaller cakes instead. If you do decide to make one large cake you'll need to increase the total cooking time to 4-5 hours.

That's the last recipe I have to share with you for 2012. I do so hope you enjoyed this year's Christmas Collection,

Jillian

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