Description
Source: Adapted from The New York Times 2004
I’ve adjusted the recipe only every so slightly in that I make this in one bowl, whisking the salt and baking powder directly into the batter, and adding the milk and flour successively as opposed to alternately.
Ingredients
- 1 stick butter (4 ounces | 114 g), plus more for greasing pan
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup (200 g) sugar
- 1 vanilla bean (or 2 teaspoons vanilla paste or extract)
- 3 to 4 apples, such as Fuji or Honey Crisp (about 1¼ pound or about 3 cups once peeled and sliced)
- ½ cup (64 g) all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ cup (140 g) milk at room temperature
- powdered sugar
Instructions
- Heat oven to 375ºF. Grease a nine-inch-circle pan with butter. Cut a circle of parchment paper to fit the bottom of the pan and place inside pan. Grease sides of pan and parchment round with butter.
- Melt butter in small saucepan. Set aside. Beat together eggs and half of sugar in a bowl. Continue to beat while slowly adding remaining sugar until thick — it should form a ribbon when dropped from spoon.
- Split vanilla bean in half lengthwise. Scrape seeds into the egg-sugar mixture and add pod to melted butter.
- Peel apples and cut straight down around the core into four big chunks. Discard the core then slice the apple pieces thinly.
- Remove vanilla pod from butter and discard. Whisk butter into the sugar-egg mixture. Add the salt and baking powder and whisk to combine. Whisk in the milk. Whisk in the flour.
- Add the apples, and use a spatula to incorporate them, coating every piece with batter. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
- Bake for 55 to 60 minutes or until the cake pulls away slightly from the pan and is brown on top. Cool for at least 30 minutes, then cut into wedges sprinkling each with powdered sugar if desired.
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 60 minutes
- Category: Dessert
- Method: oven
- Cuisine: Italian, American
Keywords: apple, cake, vanilla bean, sugar