Dorie Greenspan’s Apple Cake ala’ Marie-Hélène

I found the recipe for this delicious Apple Cake on Food52, which features an adorable and informative video of Samantha Seneviratne and her little boy making a modified version of the original recipe, which Dorie Greenspan originally shared on Epicurious. Dorie credits her friend Marie-Hélène Brunet-Lhoste for the recipe, but truth be told, Dorie created this recipe herself, having been given only a few vague instructions from Marie-Hélène.

This cake is mostly apples with a little sweet batter (and a little rum…) holding them together. It’s easy to make, bakes up beautifully, and, reports Dorie, tastes “more comforting with each passing day”, making it a wonderful make-ahead dessert for a dinner party or pot luck.

Dorie’s recipe calls for an 8-inch springform pan, so if you have an 8-inch springform pan, work from her recipe and not mine. Since I only had a 9 inch springform, I adjusted Dorie’s recipe, increasing it 25%, which I learned is the increase in surface area when you move from an 8 to a 9 inch cake pan, and increased the baking time by about 10 minutes. (Thank you, Epicurious! ) I made my cake using gala apples, which tend to hold their shape while baking. Next time, I’ll take Dorie’s advice and mix up apple types, so that some melt into the cake while others hold their form

I used about 1/4 home milled whole wheat flour in this iteration, and plan to try it again with 50% whole wheat, which I read can be done without making any other adjustments to a recipe. I’ll let you know how that turns out.

Marie Helene’s Apple Cake From Dorie Greenspan

Via Epicurious and Food 52 and adapted to a 9inch springform pan.

Ingredients

  • 120 g all purpose flour (I used 100 g all purpose and 20g home milled red spring wheat)
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • Large pinch salt (Somewhere between 1/16 and 1/8 tsp)
  • 5 large apples (if you can, choose different kinds)
  • 2 1/2 large eggs (62.5 g beaten eggs)
  • 187 grams sugar
  • 4 tablespoons dark rum
  • 3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 10 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Generously butter a 9-inch springform pan and put it on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together in small bowl.

Peel the apples, cut them off the cores and into 1- to 2-inch chunks.

In a medium bowl, beat the eggs with a whisk till foamy. Pour in the sugar and whisk for a minute or so to blend. Whisk in the rum and vanilla. Whisk in half the flour and when it is incorporated, add half the melted butter, followed by the rest of the flour and the remaining butter, mixing gently after each addition so that you have a smooth, rather thick batter. Fold in the apples so they are evenly coated with batter. Scrape the mix into the pan and make sure it’s even.

Bake on the parchment lined baking sheet in the center of the oven for 60-65 minutes, or until the top of the cake is golden brown and a knife inserted deep into the center comes out clean; the cake may pull away from the sides of the pan. Transfer to a cooling rack and let rest for 5 minutes.

Carefully run a blunt knife around the edges of the cake and remove the sides of the pan. If you want to remove the cake from the bottom of the spring-form pan, wait until the cake is almost cooled, then carefully run a spatula under and either slide it onto your serving plate, or invert onto parchment paper lined plate and then invert again onto the serving plate. (Mine just slid easily without needing to invert it twice.)

The cake can be served warm or at room temperature, with or without a little softly whipped, barely sweetened heavy cream or a spoonful of ice cream. (We served ice cream)

The cake will keep for about 2 days at room temperature. Dorie advises not to wrap the cake, as it it too moist. Just leave the cake on its plate and press a piece of plastic wrap or wax paper against the cut surfaces. I store mine in a vintage covered cake saver.

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