Dutch Apple Loaf

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...The coronation of Willem-Alexander, started me thinking about Dutch food. Save for cheese, not much of it has made its way across the ocean, and many of the dishes that we attribute to the Dutch, are actually German and come from Pennsylvania Dutch country. I suspect its crackly sugar topping is what gave this delicious loaf its Dutch descriptor. It's jam packed with apples and walnuts, and that remarkable crackly topping gives it flavor that more than makes up for its plain appearance. This  cake is fit to set before the king. Just ask the Silver Fox, who counts this simple peasant loaf among his favorite desserts. The recipe is straightforward and the cake is easy to make. Do, however, line the pan and grease it well, because this cake wants to stick. It keeps well should you have leftovers. I hope you'll give this cake a try. It is delicious and one bite set my sox in motion. It's been a while since that happened. Here's how the cake is made. 

Dutch Apple Loaf...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite courtesy of Taste of Home magazine

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/4 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups diced peeled tart apples
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
Topping
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 cup cold butter, cubed

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan. Line bottom with parchment paper, then grease paper.
2) Cream butter and sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in buttermilk and vanilla.
3) Combine flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda; gradually add to creamed mixture. Fold in apples and walnuts. Scrape into prepared pan.
4) To make topping: Combine sugar, flour and cinnamon. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle over batter.
5) Bake for 55-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near center of loaf comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack. Yield: 1 loaf (16 slices).







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Theme and Variation - Another Lemon Loaf Cake

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...This is the other lemon cake I experimented with for the party this weekend. This cake, developed by Dorie Greenspan, is a kissin' cousin to the one that was introduced by Patricia Wells. The cakes use almost the same ingredients, but they produce very different results. The Wells' cake has an intense lemon flavor and a fine tight crumb. The Greenspan cake is more like a standard pound cake that has been enhanced with lemon zest. I've been asked to pick a favorite and I'm going to field the question because this is an instance where personal taste will dictate choice. I suspect that true lemon lovers will be more inclined to the Wells' cake, but I have a hunch that the Greenspan cake will be more popular with dessert lovers who are not lemon fanatics. Both cakes are nice. I've appended a lemon syrup to tonight's recipe. While the cake is lovely without it, it adds a tart sweetness that makes a somewhat ordinary cake special. This cake is a study in simplicity. It can be made by hand with no special equipment other than a whisk, but you will have better results if you use cake flour to make it and carefully watch your baking time. Don't over bake! I also learned a trick while gathering information about poundcakes in general. Did you know that you can guarantee a perfect crack in the center of your poundcake? The trick is to draw a butter coated knife lengthwise through the center of the cake after it has baked for 10 minutes. Now, I don't know why that works, but I tried it with this cake and had ended up with a lovely center split that would make any baker proud. I hope you'll give this cake a try. There is nothing here not to like. Here is the recipe.

Dorie Greenspan's Lemon Loaf Cake...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite courtesy of Dorie Greenspan

Ingredients:
Cake
4 eggs, at room temperature
1-1/3 cups sugar
Pinch of salt
Grated zest of 3 large lemons
1-3/4 cups cake flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup heavy cream, at room temperature
5-1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
Syrup
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup granulated sugar

Directions:
1) Position a rack in center of oven. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9- by 5-inch loaf pan and dust with flour, shaking out the excess.
2) Working in a large bowl, whisk together eggs, sugar, and salt for just a minute, until foamy and smoothly blended. Mixture should not thicken. Whisk in grated zest.
3) Spoon flour and baking powder into a sifter and sift about a third of dry ingredients over foamy egg mixture. Whisk flour into eggs, mixing lightly. Sift remaining flour over eggs in two more additions and whisk only until everything is incorporated. Whisk heavy cream into mixture. Switch to a rubber spatula and gently and quickly fold in the melted butter.
4) Pour and scrape batter into prepared pan and bake for 50 to 60 minutes, or until center of cake crowns and cracks and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove cake to a cooling rack to rest for 10 minutes before unmolding and brushing with syrup.
5) While cake is baking, make lemon syrup. Place sugar and water in a small saucepan and cook over low heat until sugar dissolves. Brush warm cake with half of lemon syrup. Let cake cool to room temperature. Slice with serrated knife. Yield: 8 servings.









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Patricia Wells' Lemon Loaf Cake - Cake Au Citron

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...I've been baking today. Like many of you, the Silver Fox and I will be attending an Academy Award party on Sunday and I've been asked to bring an appetizer and dessert. For all the baking I do, I have never made the Lemon Loaf Cake that Patricia Wells featured in her book Bistro Cooking. I thought this would be a perfect cake to tote with us, but while I was at it, I decided to also make Dorie Greenspan's s version of a similar cake. I wanted to do a side-by-side comparison of the two.  The cakes are not identical to each other,  so each will be featured in a separate post. First up, will be Patricia Wells' Cake Au Citron, This lemon cake is intensely flavored and has a texture that makes is hard to categorize. It is most like a pound cake, though it is lighter and more finely textured. The cake is very easy to make and requires no special equipment. It is almost foolproof. Almost. Like all pound-type cakes it is prone to "sad streaks". A sad streak is a gummy layer that sometimes appears toward the bottom of a pound cake. I'm sure you have encountered them at one time or another in your baking. Their appearance does not mean there is a problem with the recipe. You can bake a hundred beautiful cakes using the same recipe, then suddenly  encounter one that has that damp and gummy sad streak. It probably is related to cake shrinkage and some bakers go so far as to drop or bounce their cakes to set the crumb and prevent shrinkage. I'm not that brave. I'd rather live with an occasional gummy streak than deliberately drop a cake. I mention the streaks because one of the two cakes I baked using this recipe had the gummy streak in it while the other was perfect. Quite vexing. At any rate, this is a delicious cake to make for lemon lovers in your life. Its flavor is intense and, while it is wonderful as a standalone dessert, it would also make a fabulous base for a fruit compote or trifle. The cake keeps well and improves in flavor as it ages. Needless-to-say, it would be wonderful to serve with afternoon tea. Lemon lovers will really enjoy this cake. Here is how it is made.

Lemon Loaf Cake - Cake Au Citron...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite courtesy of Patricia Wells and Bistro Cooking

Ingredients:
2-1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
5 large eggs
1-1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup creme fraiche or heavy cream
7 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
Grated zest of 4  medium lemons

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter two 9” loaf pans.
2) Combine flour and baking powder and set aside.
3) Combine eggs and sugar in an electric mixer and mix until well blended. With mixer at slow speed, slowly add, in this order: creme fraiche, flour mixture, butter, lemon juice and lemon zest. Beat until very smooth.
4) Divide batter between prepared loaf pans. Place pans in center of oven and bake until golden and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about one hour. I suggest checking after 50 minutes. Remove to a rack to cool. Let sit for 10 minutes then turn out onto cooling rack. Turn upright and let sit until cool. Cut into thin slices. Yield: 2 cakes.







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Orange-Scented Buttermilk Cake

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...I must start by telling you that this cake is as delicious as it sounds, but then I quickly have to add that the devil is lurking in the details. I found the recipe in the December issue of Food and Wine magazine. It caught my eye, so I scanned the recipe, but as I read it I found a discrepancy in the amount of an ingredient that was to be used. I went to the online version of the recipe seeking clarification, but that just muddied the water. The problem centered on the amount of liquid to be used in preparation of the cake. Both versions of the recipe specified 1-1/4 cups of buttermilk, but the magazine version used just 3/4 cup of it. I decided to proceed using quantities based on standard cake formulations that I learned years ago for recipe competitions. A little food science never hurts, and if ever someone asks you to make a cake without a recipe it can be a life saver that's worth a buck or two. The trick lies in the weight of ingredients rather than their volume. When the weight of flour equals the weight of sugar, and the weight of the eggs equals the weight the fat, and the total weight of all liquid ingredients, including eggs, equals the weight of sugar, you'll have a cake, if you remember to add some baking powder, soda and salt. Based on that, I decided to use the magazine quantities and the recipe below reflects that choice. The original version of the recipe can be found here. I must warn you that this is not a pretty cake, but it is light and moist and delicious. It is important to line the pans you use to make the loaves. The large amount of sugar used in this recipe makes the cakes prone to sticking, but a parchment liner makes easy work of removal. I hope you'll give this recipe a try. This is a perfect dessert for a large group. Here is how the cakes are made.

Orange-Scented Buttermilk Cake...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite courtesy of Food and Wine magazine

Ingredients:
3-1/4 cups cake flour, sifted, plus more for dusting
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
2 cups granulated sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons finely grated orange zest
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1/2 cup sour cream, at room temperature
1-1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Generously coat three 8-by-4-inch loaf pans with butter. Line bottom of pans with parchment paper. Butter parchment paper and dust pans with flour. Arrange pans on a baking sheet.
2) In a medium bowl, whisk cake flour with baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.
3) In bowl of a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat butter with sugar and orange zest at medium-high speed until fluffy, about 4 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating well between additions and scraping down the sides of bowl. Beat in the sour cream and vanilla.
4) At low speed, beat in dry ingredients in 3 additions, alternating with buttermilk and beginning and ending with dry ingredients; gently fold just until blended.
Scrape batter into prepared pans and smooth tops; gently tap once to release any air. Bake loaves for about 45 minutes, rotating the baking sheet halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in the center of each loaf comes out with a few moist crumbs attached.
5) Transfer the loaves to a rack for 20 minutes, then turn them out onto rack and set them right side up to cool. Dust with confectioners’ sugar, slice and serve. Yield: 3 loaves (21 slices).

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