Home Cookin Chapter: Recipes From Thibeault's Table

Apple Cake - Torta Di Mele Al Burro
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Buttery Apple Cake

Source: Savoring Italy by Michele Scicolone

1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
3 Apples (Golden Delicious) peeled, cored, and cut into slices 1/4 inch thick
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 whole eggs, plus 1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cups granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest
confectioners sugar

Note: I used Red Delicious Apples
. Preheat oven to 375°. Generously butter a 9 inch round cake pan with 2
inch sides.

In a large frying pan over low heat, melt the butter. Pour 6
tablespoons of it into a small bowl or cup and set aside. Add the
apple slices to the butter remaining in the frying pan and cook,
stirring occasionally, until the apples are tender, about 10 minutes.
Removed from the heat.

In a small bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt. In
a large bowl, beat the whole eggs and egg yolk until blended. Add the
6 tablespoons melted butter, the vanilla, the granulated sugar, and the
lemon zest. Stir in the flour mixture and the apples. Spoon into th
prepared pan, smoothing the top.

Bake until the cake is browned, 30 to 35 minutes. Transfer to a wire
rack and let cool in the pan for 5 mintues. Invert the cake ont a plate
and lift off the pan, then invet the cake again onto the rack and let
cool completely.

Just before serving, place confectioners sugar in a small sieve and
dust the top of the cake.

Betty Jo, I hope you find one that works for you.

Ann

Cindy

Home Cookin Chapter: Recipes From Thibeault's Table

Apple Butter
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Apple Butter recipe

Posted by annie1992 (My Page) on
Mon, Jul 3, 06 at 1:22

This recipe is Grandma's and I won a blue ribbon the year I was 12 at the county fair using this recipe. Dad was prouder of that ribbon than he was when I finished college, I think. LOL

I did change this recipe in one way. I bake it in the oven instead of standing at the stove stirring a boiling pot of apple butter. I can go do other things and I don't get all those little burns on my arm from the volcanos of boiling apple butter. I bake it in a big non-reactive roaster at about 250F. This takes 8-10 hours but the house will smell sooooo good. Stir it about once an hour. I've baked it hotter, but you have to be very careful that it doesn't overcook and taste caramelized. If you want it more quickly, turn it up to 350 for the first couple of hours, until the pulp starts to thicken, then turn it down to finish but watch it carefully. You can also do this in a crockpot, but again, watch carefully. Today's crockpots will overcook it quickly and you'll get that caramelized flavor.

Grandma Powell's Apple Butter

6 lbs apples quartered (about 12 apples, I use MacIntosh)
2 quarts sweet apple cider
2 cups sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves

Simmer apples in cider until tender, then put through a food mill or sieve. Measure 3 quarts of apple pulp and cook until mixture mounds on a spoon. Add sugar and spices (taste it, you can add more or less to make it the way you like it), cook stirring frequently until mixture is thick, about 1 hour. Watch carefully as the apple butter thickens so it doesn't stick and scorch. Pour hot into hot jars, add rings and lids. Process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes for pints and quarts.

Makes about 6 pints (depending on how juicy your apples are)

This is a recipe that you HAVE to taste to get it right. The apples could be very sweet or extremely sour. If they are juicy, they'll cook down and make less but it will taste just as good. I regularly add more cloves because I love that flavor, and sometimes I add ginger. Occasionally I use half brown sugar. Oh, and I always reuse the cider, I either cook more apples in it and make a double batch of apple butter, or I strain it and make apple jelly.

Incidentally, if you think you can use that much, you don't have to can it, it'll keep in the refrigerator for a week or two. It doesn't freeze well, though, it kind of "separates".

Annie

Mary