Apple and pecan sheet cake with lime icing

My name is Patricia but you can call me The Apple (Crazy?) Lady. ;)

After last fall’s endless list of apple recipes, I’ve started again – and my plan is to enjoy the pears as much as the apples this year.

This cake is moist, delicious, with a nice molasses hint from the demerara sugar. The original recipe called for caramel sauce as a topping for the cake, but I thought that something less sweet would be better and made a lime icing instead - not that I need an excuse to add citrus flavors to my baked goods and desserts... ;)

Apple and pecan sheet cake with lime icing
adapted from the great The Bon Appetit Cookbook: Fast Easy Fresh

Cake:
2 cups (400g) demerara sugar
½ cup + 2 tablespoons (140g) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups (280g) all purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
scant ½ teaspoon salt
600g (about 3) Granny Smith apples, coarsely grated – don’t bother peeling them
1 cup (110g) pecans, toasted, cooled and chopped

Lime icing:
2 cups (280g) icing sugar
finely grated zest of 2 limes
2 tablespoons lime juice

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F; butter and flour a 32.5x22.5x5cm (13x9x2in) metal baking pan*.
In the large bowl of an electric mixer, beat sugar, butter, eggs and vanilla until smooth. Add flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder and salt and beat just until combined. Stir in the apples and pecans – batter will be stiff. Transfer batter to the prepared pan and smooth the surface.
Bake until risen and golden and a skewer inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean, about 55 minutes. Cool cake completely in the pan over a wire rack.
Make the icing: sift the sugar into a medium bowl and add the zest and juice. Mix until smooth and spreadable, adding a little water if necessary. Spread over the cooled cake and set aside until firm, 20 minutes. Cut in squares to serve.

* I made the exact recipe above using a 20x30cm (8x12in) pan

Serves 15

Banana crumble

I was watching “Law & Order” the other day and felt like eating something sweet (like that’s something unusual). :) But the episode was really interesting – no Linus, which is bad, but Benjamin, which is good – and I wanted something fast to get back to the couch as soon as possible. The result was this crumble, ridiculously simple and oh, so delicious – and that smells and tastes like banana tart without all the work.

Banana crumble
inspired by the always wonderful Modern Classics 2

½ cup (70g) all purpose flour
pinch of salt
1 ½ tablespoons superfine sugar
1 ½ tablespoons demerara sugar
pinch of ground cinnamon, or to taste
¼ cup (28g) rolled oats
50g unsalted butter, cold and chopped
2 bananas

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Slice the bananas and divide them equally among two lightly buttered 1 cup (240ml) capacity ovenproof bowls. Set aside.
Place flour, salt, sugars, cinnamon and oats in a medium bowl and mix to combine. Add the butter and, using your fingertips, rub the ingredients together until mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Sprinkle over the bananas mixture and bake for 30 minutes or until golden.
Serve with heavy cream or vanilla ice cream.

Serves 2

Back to school raspberry granola bars and my (many) obsessions

I’m someone who obsesses with certain things from time to time – directors, actors, music, you name it. And food, of course. I obsessed with Ralph Fiennes so badly after “Schindler’s List” that I had to watch each and every film with him – and that led me to Kathryn Bigelow’s “Strange Days” (which is far better than “The Hurt Locker”, imho). Did I mention I was about 17 back then? Well. ;)

It might seem that I’m on a cake kick right now, but I’ve been really thinking about bars lately – and these are the ones to blame. They were so irresistible – and easy to make, despite the layers – that a search for great bars has begun, and the granola ones you see on the picture can certainly be part of the bar hall of fame: they were so good I almost did not share them. :)

Back to school raspberry granola bars
from The Craft of Baking

¾ cup (168g/1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
1 cup (110g) pecans, roughly chopped
1 ½ cups (210g) all purpose flour
1 ¼ cups (143g) old fashioned rolled oats – I made a mistake and used 1 ½ cups (172g)
1/3 cup (67g) granulated sugar
1/3 cup (58g) light brown sugar, packed
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 cup raspberry preserves

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Butter a 20cm (8in) square baking pan, line it with foil, leaving an overhang on two opposite sides and butter the foil as well.
Place the pecans on a baking sheet and bake until lightly golden and fragrant, about 5 minutes. Cool the sheet completely on a wire rack.
In a large bowl, combine flour, oats, granulated sugar, brown sugar, salt, baking soda and the cooled pecans. Pour in the melted butter and mix until well combined. Transfer about 2/3 of the mixture to the prepared pan. Press the dough evenly into the pan, forming a firmly packed layer. Using a spatula spread the preserves over the base. Evenly sprinkle the remaining dough over the preserves. Bake, rotating the pan halfway through, until the top is golden brown and fragrant, about 40 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and cool completely. With the aid of the foil handles, carefully remove from the pan and cut into squares.
The bars can be kept in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week.

Makes 16

Swedish visiting cake + music lyrics

One of my favorite things about learning English was being able to understand music lyrics – I think some of you agree with me on that. :)

That said, there are times I want to listen to complex lyrics and there are others when almost no lyrics is the way to go. I feel the same about the cakes I bake: there are times for complex, layered beauties, and times when only simple will do. ;)

Swedish visiting cake
from Dorie’s baking bible

1 cup (200g) superfine sugar + a little more for sprinkling
finely grated zest of 1 lemon
2 large eggs
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 vanilla bean, cut lengthwise, seeds scraped with the back of a knife – or use ½ teaspoon almond extract, as per the original recipe
1 cup (140g) all purpose flour
½ cup (113g/1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
about ¼ cup sliced almonds (blanched or not)

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Butter a seasoned 23cm (9in) cast iron skillet or other heavy ovenproof skillet, a 23cm (9in) round cake pan or pie pan.
Combine the sugar and the lemon zest in a large bowl and rub them together with your fingertips until sugar is fragrant. Whisk in the eggs, one at a time, until well blended. Whisk in the salt and the extracts/vanilla seeds. Using a silicone spatula, stir in the flour, and then fold in the butter.
Transfer batter to the prepared pan and smooth the surface. Sprinkle with the almonds and extra sugar (if you’re using a cake or pie pan, place it on a baking sheet).
Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden and a little crisp at the edges – the inside of the cake will remain moist. Remove from the oven, let the cake cool 5 minutes in the pan, over a wire rack, then run a thin knife around the sides and bottom of the cake to loosen it*. Serve the cake warm or cool.

* I used a fluted tart pan and it was impossible to do that; I cooled the cake in the pan completely then carefully unmolded it, first loosing some of the edges with the handle of a teaspoon, then loosing the bottom of the cake with a large metal spatula

Serves 8-10

Lemon cranberry madeleines and being repetitive

I don’t mean to sound like a broken record, but I have to bring this subject up again: not only is “Love Lost” an amazing song but its video is equally wonderful – click here and then tell me if you agree with me. Or not (just so you know it, I’m a complete sucker for music videos). ;)

And speaking of being repetitive, I’m bringing lemon madeleines back – with dried cranberries, this time.

Lemon cranberry madeleines
adapted from Dorie’s traditional madeleines

2/3 cup (94g) all-purpose flour
¾ teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
½ cup (100g) caster (superfine) sugar
finely grated zest of 2 lemons
2 large eggs, at room temperature
6 tablespoons (84g/¾ stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 cup (110g) dried cranberries, mixed in a bowl with 1 teaspoon flour

Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.
Place the sugar and lemon zest in the large bowl of an electric mixer and rub them together using your fingertips until the sugar is fragrant with lemon. Add the eggs to the bowl and, with the whisk attachment or with a hand mixer, beat the sugar and eggs together on medium-high speed until pale, thick and light, 2 to 3 minutes. With a rubber spatula, very gently fold in the dry ingredients, followed by the melted butter and dried cranberries. Press a piece of plastic wrap against the surface of the batter and refrigerate it for at least 3 hours, or for up to 2 days. This long chill period will help the batter form the hump that is characteristic of madeleines.
Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F. Butter 12 full-size madeleine molds, or up to 36 mini madeleine molds, dust the insides with flour and tap out the excess.
Spoon the batter into the molds, filling each one almost to the top. Don't worry about spreading the batter evenly, the oven's heat will take care of that. Bake large madeleines for 11 to 13 minutes, and minis for 8 to 10 minutes, or until they are golden and the tops spring back when touched. Remove the pan(s) from the oven and release the madeleines from the molds. Transfer the cookies to a rack to cool completely.

If you are making minis and have more batter, bake the next batch(es), making certain that you cool, then properly prepare the pan(s) before baking.

Makes 12 large or 36 mini cookies – I got 20 regular madeleines (like the ones on the photos, 1 tablespoon-capacity pans) + 9 using a scallop-shaped pan (2 tablespoon-capacity pans)