Kitchen adventures + Apple cake recipe
Sep. 4th, 2017 08:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yuuagoThat spinach & pancetta soup didn't turn out as hoped, but ahhhh well. Live and learn.
Mom came home yesterday, so I showed her the recipe I'd been using (it's from a really lovely book of recipes from Fruili, the region of Italy my grandfather immigrated from). She took one look at it and was like "Well, there's your problem - you're following the instructions exactly". Ahaha... apparently the techniques for incorporating the corn meal, as described, are "hard mode" and there were other things I should have done, and so on, but obviously one wouldn't know about any of it if they're just doing what the book says. Oh, well.
So, I don't think I'll try making this particular version of Paparòt again. But I'd like to try some of the other things some time... there are some frittata variations in here that sound really good, and I mean, how hard can it be, it's just a crustless quiche (says the person who has never made quiche). And ahhh there's a recipe for Fave dei morti, I want to try that when we get closer to the end of October....
Upside: I made a cake from the same book! And it turned out pretty decently! So, there's that. (Though once again, "I can bake, but I can't cook at all" rears its head, fffff.) And since it turned out well, I'll share the recipe here. USA measurements, sorry; you'll have to convert it yourself.
Carnian Torta di Mele
This is a coffee cake. Great for having with afternoon hot drink of your choice. It isn't very crumbly or squishy, and it slices very well, which leads me to feel it would transport well - so, a good one to take on picnics, or if you're visiting someone for tea, and so on.
Ingredients:
+ 1 & 1/4 cup flour
+ 2 tsp baking powder
+ pinch salt
+ 1/2 cup or 8 tbsp butter
+ 3/4 cup sugar
+ 2 eggs
+ 1/4 cup grappa or rum (I used rum)
+ 1 apple - cored & thinly sliced; you can peel it too if you want (I didn't bother)
Optional extras:
+ confectioner's sugar or powdered sugar
+ cinnamon
Pan details:
+ Recipe suggests 9-inch springform pan. I just used an ordinary round pan, can't remember the size; 8-9 inch or so.
+ If using a regular pan, line the bottom and sides with waxed paper, and grease the inside with medium of your choice (spray/butter/whatever). After it's cooled, you can just pull it right out - it's very solid.
To make:
1. Preheat oven to 350F. In a medium bowl, combine flour/baking powder/salt; set aside. In a large bowl, beat butter & sugar until light. Beat in eggs and liquor. Gradually stir in flour mixture.
2. Pour and spread the batter into your pan - it's thick, so you'll have to even it out. Use the apple slices to make a decorative circular pattern by pressing them edge-down into the batter.
3. Bake for about 50 minutes or until baking fork comes away clean. Let stand 15 minutes; sprinkle with powder sugar + cinnamon if desired.
Notes:
+ The more individual apple slices you use, the more moist each cake slice will be
+ Recipe says that this serves 6-8 but I find that would make for rather large pieces... you can cut it very thinly if desired (and, like I mentioned previously, it slices very neatly)
+ Use a soft apple (Fuji, Gala, Mac) rather than a cooking apple (Granny smith) for optimum deliciousness
+ This cake might be interesting with something added to the batter (finely-cut apple pieces? Or maybe raisins?). If I attempt that, I'll probably put part of the batter in reserve before adding the extras. The reserve batter will be spread over the top once the rest is in the pan, to maintain the smooth surface for the apple slice design.
Mom came home yesterday, so I showed her the recipe I'd been using (it's from a really lovely book of recipes from Fruili, the region of Italy my grandfather immigrated from). She took one look at it and was like "Well, there's your problem - you're following the instructions exactly". Ahaha... apparently the techniques for incorporating the corn meal, as described, are "hard mode" and there were other things I should have done, and so on, but obviously one wouldn't know about any of it if they're just doing what the book says. Oh, well.
So, I don't think I'll try making this particular version of Paparòt again. But I'd like to try some of the other things some time... there are some frittata variations in here that sound really good, and I mean, how hard can it be, it's just a crustless quiche (says the person who has never made quiche). And ahhh there's a recipe for Fave dei morti, I want to try that when we get closer to the end of October....
Upside: I made a cake from the same book! And it turned out pretty decently! So, there's that. (Though once again, "I can bake, but I can't cook at all" rears its head, fffff.) And since it turned out well, I'll share the recipe here. USA measurements, sorry; you'll have to convert it yourself.
Carnian Torta di Mele
This is a coffee cake. Great for having with afternoon hot drink of your choice. It isn't very crumbly or squishy, and it slices very well, which leads me to feel it would transport well - so, a good one to take on picnics, or if you're visiting someone for tea, and so on.
Ingredients:
+ 1 & 1/4 cup flour
+ 2 tsp baking powder
+ pinch salt
+ 1/2 cup or 8 tbsp butter
+ 3/4 cup sugar
+ 2 eggs
+ 1/4 cup grappa or rum (I used rum)
+ 1 apple - cored & thinly sliced; you can peel it too if you want (I didn't bother)
Optional extras:
+ confectioner's sugar or powdered sugar
+ cinnamon
Pan details:
+ Recipe suggests 9-inch springform pan. I just used an ordinary round pan, can't remember the size; 8-9 inch or so.
+ If using a regular pan, line the bottom and sides with waxed paper, and grease the inside with medium of your choice (spray/butter/whatever). After it's cooled, you can just pull it right out - it's very solid.
To make:
1. Preheat oven to 350F. In a medium bowl, combine flour/baking powder/salt; set aside. In a large bowl, beat butter & sugar until light. Beat in eggs and liquor. Gradually stir in flour mixture.
2. Pour and spread the batter into your pan - it's thick, so you'll have to even it out. Use the apple slices to make a decorative circular pattern by pressing them edge-down into the batter.
3. Bake for about 50 minutes or until baking fork comes away clean. Let stand 15 minutes; sprinkle with powder sugar + cinnamon if desired.
Notes:
+ The more individual apple slices you use, the more moist each cake slice will be
+ Recipe says that this serves 6-8 but I find that would make for rather large pieces... you can cut it very thinly if desired (and, like I mentioned previously, it slices very neatly)
+ Use a soft apple (Fuji, Gala, Mac) rather than a cooking apple (Granny smith) for optimum deliciousness
+ This cake might be interesting with something added to the batter (finely-cut apple pieces? Or maybe raisins?). If I attempt that, I'll probably put part of the batter in reserve before adding the extras. The reserve batter will be spread over the top once the rest is in the pan, to maintain the smooth surface for the apple slice design.
Yuu. Fic writer & book lover. M/Canada.
no subject
Date: 2017-09-05 06:08 pm (UTC)I don't think I've ever used cornmeal in any of my soups, so I can't give any advice there. It is frustrating, though, when following a recipe is what screws you up. That's definitely happened to me more than once when trying out something new, and I've been cooking for years.
no subject
Date: 2017-09-06 04:03 am (UTC)Ahh, yeah. Stuff not turning out is... well, really frustrating. BUT I'll just try to take it as a learning experience~