On Wednesday, Dec. 3, at 6 p.m., cookbook author and baker Dorie Greenspan will be signing copies of her latest cookbook, Baking Chez Moi: Recipes from My Paris Home to Your Home Anywhere (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Oct. 28, 2014), at Deane Inc., 1267 East Main Street, Stamford.
The public is invited to the event, which will include wine and samplings from Dorie’s cookbook, which was written with the home baker in mind and focuses on French desserts, with recipes coming from several different regions in France. Cookbook categories include Simple Cakes, Fancy Cakes, Baby Cakes and Petit Pastries, Tarts and Galettes, Cookies and Bars, and Fruit, Creams, Frozen Desserts and Candies.
The author will be signing copies of her book throughout the evening. Reservations are required. For more information or to make reservations, email barrettbooks@sbcglobal.net or call 203-655-2712.
APPLE WEEKEND CAKE*
(Makes 10 servings)
Excerpted from BAKING CHEZ MOI, © 2014 by Dorie Greenspan.
Reproduced by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. All rights reserved.
This is a recipe from Normandy, the region of France known for butter, cream and apples of many varieties, but it’s a cake that you find all over the country, one that might turn up with coffee in the morning or tea in the afternoon at a bed-and-breakfast. It’s a tight-crumbed loaf with enough moisture to keep it fresh over a long weekend. And, like so many cakes with fruit, it’s even tastier the day after it’s made.
Cakes like these don’t often include flavoring, but I think the addition of dark rum, vanilla and cinnamon is great with the apples. If you wanted to tinker just a bit more, you might consider grating in some lemon or orange zest, and maybe stirring in some plump raisins or
chopped nuts too.
Cookbook author Dorie Greenspan will be signing copies of her new book, Baking Chez Moi: Recipes from My Paris Home to Your Home Anywhere, at Deane, Inc., Stamford, at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, December 3. — Allan Richardson photo
A note on the apples: The cake itself is only just sweet enough—the real sweetness comes from the apples. For the best flavor, use juicy apples that are more sweeter than they are tangy. Think Mutsu, Fuji or Gala, for example.
Ingredients:
1 1/3 cups (181 grams) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 stick (8 tablespoons; 4 ounces; 113 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup (100 grams) sugar
1/2 cup (60 grams) confectioners’ sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 tablespoon dark rum (or an additional 1 teaspoon vanilla extract)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 medium apples, peeled, cored and cut into small chunks
About 1/3 cup apple jelly or strained apricot jam, for glazing (optional)
DIrections:
Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Butter an 8 1/2-x-4 1/2-inch loaf pan, dust with flour, tap out the excess and put the pan on a baking sheet.
Whisk the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt together in a small bowl.
Working in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a large bowl with a hand mixer, beat the butter on medium speed until smooth. Add both sugars and beat until creamy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for a minute after each one goes in. The mixture will be thin and look curdled. Beat in the rum and vanilla. It will curdle even more, but that’s fine. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients, mixing only until they disappear into the batter, which will now be thick and shiny. With a flexible spatula, fold in the apple pieces, then scrape the batter into the prepared pan. Use the spatula to cajole the batter into the corners of the pan and even the top.
Bake the cake for 60 to 65 minutes, or until golden, crowned and cracked in the middle; a knife inserted into the center should emerge clean. Transfer the pan to a cooling rack and wait for 5 minutes, then turn the cake out of the pan and let it cool right side up on the rack.
If you’d like to glaze the cake, bring the jelly or jam and a splash of water to a boil (you can do this on the stove or in a microwave oven) and brush the hot glaze over the top of the cooled cake.
Serving: This is a substantial cake with a compact crumb, so it’s best served in medium-thin slices. Of course it can be served as a dessert, but I think it’s best as a morning or snack cake or, best of all, as a picnic loaf.
Storing: Once the cake is cool, it should be wrapped well (I wrap it in wax paper), and if you’ve got the time, set aside to ripen for a day. The cake will keep for about 4 days at room temperature or, if it’s not glazed, for up to 2 months in the freezer. Defrost it in its wrapper.