apples

Apple Sour Cream Cinnamon Cake

I am no longer a fan of the usual custom of the big fluffy iced birthday cake.  I have sure had some bad cake luck over the years, even when I COULD bake with regular flour!  So, I had a birthday cake to make one weekend, and I went a different direction. I made a cinnamon walnut apple cake.  Used that recipe before, and now I wonder why it took so long to make it again.  Addictively flavored with cinnamon and chopped walnuts. The thin layer of apples adds moisture and a delicate touch of apple. Yumm!

It is from my favorite cookbook by Annalise Roberts, Gluten Free Baking Classics.  To be honest it is more of a coffee cake but oh what a sweet and luscious treat it is; I swear you could feed it to anyone, and they would enjoy it. That cookbook is chock full of delicious recipes. I highly recommend it. My copy is much worn and floured! Might be time for a new copy!

Easy mixing up of dry ingredients, beat the eggs and sugar with electric mixer and combine all.  Layer it up with thin slivers of raw apple and the nut/sugar mix.  In all it has about a half cup less sugar than most birthday cakes and if you frost the cake, you are adding a lot more calories than my simple glaze.  The cake is fine without glaze, but I felt it added a lovely finish and great complexity to the flavors of this treat.

I didn’t take many pictures; my fingers were sticky with dough, and I really had to just put the cake together; my assistant was only 4 years old and he was more important to me than taking pictures when I made this the other day. Next time I will take shots as I put it together and add them to this posting.

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Sour Cream Coffee Cake

½ cup chopped walnuts

2 tsp. cinnamon

1 ½ cups sugar, divided

1 medium apple; peeled, cored and cut in 8 wedges and each in 8 slices.

2 cups brown rice flour mix

1 ½ tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

¾ tsp. xanthan gum

½ tsp. salt

2 large eggs, room temp

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 cup sour cream, room temp

1/3 cup canola oil

Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put rack in center of oven.  Spray a 9-inch tube pan with removable bottom with cooking spray.

Mix walnuts, cinnamon and half cup of the sugar in a small bowl.

Whisk rest of dry ingredients in a small bowl.

Beat eggs in the large bowl of an electric mixer until well blended; 2-3 minutes.  Add the rest of the sugar one tbsp. at a time beating well until creamy colored and fluffy. Add vanilla, sour cream, oil and flour mixture and then beat at low speed for 30 seconds, medium low if your mixer has a very low speed, should be well blended. Spread half that batter in the pan, top with apple bits and half the nut/sugar mix.  Spread rest of batter on top evenly; I plop small bits trying not to get too much in any one area. Cover with rest of sugar/walnut mixture. Don’t worry if it doesn’t seem even; it will rise and form into a cohesive cake.

Bake 50 minutes (Do NOT open until 45 min) until cake tester comes out clean.  Cool in pan on a cake rack for 20 minutes.  Cut down with a thin bread knife around the outside and the center tube and remove from pan; cool completely before slicing underneath to release the cake from the tube.

I made a simple glaze to drizzle over the top; 1 cup confectioner’s sugar, 1 tsp. vanilla extract, 2-3 tbsp. cream or milk.  Add the vanilla and 2 tbsp of milk; add more milk to thin it to the consistency that will allow you to drizzle from a spoon onto the cake.  Slice with a bread knife for perfect serving of this yummy treat.

Brown Rice Flour Mix base mix
2 c brown rice flour

2/3 c potato starch

1/3 c tapioca flour

Alsatian Apple Tart: New Classic at My House

I bought a few new gf cookbooks this past 6-7 months. I have been too busy to do much with my new one by Annalise G. Roberts; she wrote my favorite gf cookbook “Gluten-Free Baking Classics”. In “ The Heirloom Collection” she re-creates many classic recipes we all love but in a gluten free version. Eighteen cakes, thirteen muffins, scones and quick breads, sixteen cookies, twenty breads as well as eleven tarts. And some other misc. baked goods. SO many yummy looking things to bake. All gluten free. And knowing Annalise Roberts, all yummy!

She starts with a section on how to take a wheat flour based recipe and make it gluten free; very interesting: I have a few cherished recipes I would love to convert.  She is such a reliable and careful baker; all her recipes turn out exactly as promised. With so many great looking recipes and if you have any of her other cookbooks you will definitely want this one.

Anyway back to my tart: I was looking for an apple recipe that only needed 4 apples, cause that’s all I had and this tart caught my eye. I had everything but the heavy cream. So I procured a small container and I was good to go.

It was a very easy recipe; make the tart shell and while it pre-bakes, peel and slice the apples and mix up the custard. Arranging the apples took me 3-4 minutes and another 30 seconds to pour over the custard and carefully place it in my oven for a transformational baking. alsatian apple tart 002

This tart has a lovely texture; the apple slices are soft but held their shape and the custard is silky and subtle. The long baking makes the crust very crisp. No ice cream needed; this is perfect just by itself.

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After making this tart I noticed that this is the baked good featured on the back cover of the book; a place of honor for a fantastic apple treat. So freaking good; you must try it even if you use a wheat crust. Alsace-Lorraine is an area in Germany close to France; over the years it has been passed back and forth a few times. One of my ancestors is from this area so I was thrilled to find a recipe my great great grandmother might have baked!alsatian apple tart 004

Alsatian Apple Tart
6 large slices or 8 skinny ones

Crust:
1 c plus 2 tbsp brown rice flour mix (at bottom of recipe)
2 tbsp sweet rice flour
1 Tbps. granulated sugar
½ tsp xanthan gum
¼ tsp salt
6 Tbps. cold butter cut into 6 chunks
1 lg egg
2 tsp fresh orange, lemon juice, even lime juice works

Spray a nine – ten inch tart pan that has a 1 ½ inch side with cooking spray, set aside. I use a ceramic ten inch pan but if you have one of those tricky deep tart pans with a removable bottom that would work perfectly.

Mix dry ingredients in bowl of a stand electric mixer. Add butter and mix until crumbly and resembling coarse meal. Add egg and juice. Mix until it comes together into big chunks. Shape into a ball with your hands. Put it on a crust sized piece of wax paper (14 x 14 inches more or less), flatten the crust ball some; put on top of it another piece of wax paper and chill it all in your fridge 15-20 minutes.

Roll out the flattened ball into a pie crust in a pie bag or between the two sheets of wax paper, try to get the thickness even, no thick middle! I like to sprinkle a bit of my flour mix on the crust as it gets thinner so it doesn’t stick to the pie bag/wax paper. Peel off one side of paper and place in the tart pan, be sure to center it. Remove other slice of wax paper. Crimp edges all around.
Bake at 375 for 15 minutes.

Filling:

4 medium-large sized apples, yellow delicious or fuji work well as they don’t squish down too much. I used Fuji; best use for them yet as I find they don’t squish like I want in pies.

Peel apples, quarter, cut out core, slice into 1/2 inch thick slices (8 for a medium apple)

Mix in a medium mixing bowl with:

6 tbsp. sugar
2 eggs; stir well
Add 1 cup heavy cream, 1 tbsp. milk, 1 tsp. vanilla extract, ¼ tsp. cinnamon.

Arrange the apple slices in the warm/hot tart shell, squash them close together. Pour the custard filling over the apples.

Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for 50-55 minutes until the custard is set and the crust is light brown

Cool the pie at least 1 hour before serving. You can sprinkle the slices with confectioner’s sugar if you like to guild the lily; not really necessary though.

Brown Rice Flour Mix (same as King Arthur GF Flour mix)
2 c brown rice flour, finely ground
2/3 c potato starch (Not potato flour)
1/3 c tapioca flour

This recipe is from Annalise Roberts’ great cookbook: Gluten-Free Baking Classics – The Heirloom Collection.

Apple Pear Tartlets: Terrific

Apples and pears go together delightfully and fall is the perfect time to indulge in baking them into tartlets for company. I love to make individual tarts because they make people feel so special when you each get your own tartlet. Use what ever kind of baking apples you have. Good choices are red Rome, Empire, Golden Delicious, but no to Fuji, Red Delicious or Gala apples. I got mine from an actual apple orchard (Bechdolts which is south of Hellertown, PA.) I like to buy their small basket of seconds which are cheaper and just as fresh as can be especially compared to grocery store apples. Plus the taste is the same as the fancy unblemished ones in the display baskets. Bosc pears are perfect for baking; great flavor and texture.

I used Annalise Robert’s crust recipe and flour mixture. I think this crust tastes terrific and has a wonderful texture.

2014-10-26 pasta tower 005These are simple tarts: no need to make them perfect looking. I used a fork to press around the crust before I lay the fruit in it. I cut out leaves from the leftover crust to make a sort of a top crust. The coarse sugar adds a certain eye apple and crunch. Enjoy!

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Rustic Pear Apple Tartlets

Crust:
1 c plus 2 tbsp brown rice flour mix (at bottom of recipe)
2 tbsp sweet rice flour
1 Tbps. granulated sugar
½ tsp xanthan gum
¼ tsp salt
6 Tbps. cold butter cut into 6 chunks
1 lg egg
2 tsp fresh orange or lemon juice

Spray 4 inch metal tart pans or 4 inch mini deep dish pie pans with cooking spray, dust with white rice flour. Set aside.

Mix dry ingredients in bowl of stand electric mixer. Add butter and mix until crumbly and resembling coarse meal. Add egg and juice. Mix until it comes together into big chunks. Shape into a ball with your hands. Put it on a crust sized piece of wax paper (14 x 14 inches more or less), flatten the crust ball some; put on top of it another piece of wax paper and chill it all in your fridge 15-20 minutes.

Cut it into 4 balls and roll out each ball into a small pie crust in a pie bag or between the two sheets of wax paper, try to get the thickness even, no thick middle! Peel off one side of paper and place in mini
pie pan, centered. Remove other slice of wax paper. Crimp edges all around. Do again until you have 4 shells and use all the crumb leftovers to make a fifth tartlet crust. I actually do two of them side by side and turn them out onto the tartlet pans together. Repeat for other four shells.

Filling:

2 medium sized yellow delicious or other baking apples
1 large bosc pear

Peel apples, quarter, cut out core, slice into 1/3 inch thick slices. Same for pear except you can leave the peel on if you like. Or peel! Mix in a large bowl with:

3 tbsp. granulated sugar (4 if you like it sweet)
1 tbsp. minute tapioca
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
A sprinkle of ground nutmeg.

Heap into tartlet shells. Top with a leaf cut out of the spare crust. Sprinkle with coarse sugar.

Bake 375 for 40-45 minutes until lightly browned. Cool before serving with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
Brown Rice Flour Mix- (same as King Arthur gf flour blend)
2 c brown rice flour
2/3 c potato starch
1/3 c tapioca flour

Originally published October 2014.

Cranberry Apple Tartlets: Company Dessert!

Truth is I never was a fan of cranberries, sure I eat cranberry relish at Thanksgiving and maybe Christmas and sometimes I drink cranberry juice but that is about all I ever thought those little red fruits were good for. In this past year I have tried them in a few desserts and they have been spectacular – great flavor and color, yes they are rather tangy but with a little sugar they are perfect.

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If you only have a few apples and some cranberries you can make a really special dessert. I used my flat bottom tartlet pans to make these elegant little tarts; each one is a separate dessert which makes for a special look. My mom gave me two tart pans a few years ago and I use them all the time; each pan makes 4 tartlets.

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This is a simple recipe; toss the fruits with sugar and a touch of tapioca. If you don’t have tapioca use some cornstarch or rice flour mix. The individual tarts look like I bought them in a bakery. I tried them with bits of crust for a rustic topping and the crumb version which I liked a bit better in the flavor department so I went with that.

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I served them the other day and my guy pleaded for one to take home for breakfast. He does not need to eat gf but he loves a great dessert. Serve these tartlets and I promise you no one will even believe they are eating gluten free!

Angie’s Cranberry Apple Tartlets
Makes 5

Start by making some gf pie crust and the crumb topping. If you have leftover crumb topping in the fridge you are ahead of the game for making pies and tarts!

Crust:
1 c plus 2 tbsp brown rice flour mix (at bottom of recipe)
2 tbsp sweet rice flour
1 Tbps. granulated sugar
½ tsp xanthan gum
¼ tsp salt
6 Tbps. cold butter cut into 6 chunks
1 lg egg
2 tsp fresh orange or lemon juice
Mix dry ingredients in bowl of stand electric mixer. Add butter and mix until crumbly and resembling coarse meal. Add egg and juice. Mix until it comes together into big chunks. Shape into a ball with your hands. Put it on a crust sized piece of wax paper (14 x 14 inches more or less), flatten the crust ball some; put on top of it another piece of wax paper and chill it all in your fridge 15-20 minutes while you prepare the filling.
Crumb topping:Put all four ingredients in the same mixing bowl you made the bottom crust in and mix well with mixer paddle until crumbs form.

¾ c brown rice flour mix
½ c sugar
½ tsp xanthan gum
1/3 c cold butter cut into six chunks

You will use less than a cup of the crumbs. Put the rest in a tightly sealing glass container and store in the fridge for your next pie/tart. It should keep for several weeks.

Heat the oven to 375 while you make the filling.

Filling
1 baking apple
1 1/2 cup raw cranberries
1/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp. granulated tapioca
1/4 tsp. cinnamon

Directions:
Peel, core, quarter and chop coarsely the cooking apple, put in a mixing bowl with the cranberries. Be sure to first wash and pick over the cranberries and remove any soft or iffy ones. Add the sugar, tapioca and cinnamon, mix with a spoon.

Roll out the crust into one big crust, lay it over the tart pans and use a knife to cut it into 4 pieces. Press, snip and fold to fit it into each of the small tart pans. Don’t make a big crust edge; not necessary, cut off excess dough. Re-roll the leftovers for a fifth tartlet.

Pour filling into the crusted tartlet pans. Sprinkle the tartlets with the crumb topping, I didn’t make a solid layer over the entire top; thicker in the middle. Place in the oven and bake 40-45 minutes or until bubbly and lightly browned. Cool at least 10 minutes. Serve warm or cold. Great with vanilla ice cream. Enjoy!

Brown Rice Flour Mix (Same as King Arthur gf flour mix)
2 c brown rice flour (finely ground)
2/3 c potato starch – Not potato flour!
1/3 c tapioca flour

Awesome Apple Crisp

Apples are the lynchpin of the fall harvest season. Some may think pumpkins wear the crown but I firmly believe the apple is king of autumn in America. Crisp, sweet, flavorful and so good for you. That old adage of an apple a day has some basis in fact. When you get tired of apples in the raw; try an apple crisp.  It is very simple because there is no crust to roll out or position over the apples.  Dump, sprinkle and bake: a 7 year old can make this if you cut up the apples for them.

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If you can, get the organic ones as the sprays they use on growing apples are not at all good for you. I made this today with some Jonagold apples from a farm stand and it was very tasty indeed. I especially suggest you get your apples at an actual apple orchard if you want the most appley taste. South of Hellertown is Bechdolt’s Orchard which grows many apple varieties. Go there if you want the freshest tastiest apples in this geographic area. Apples grow all over the globe so you shouldn’t have problems getting them just picked! The variety is up to you but I would not suggest any that are not meant for baking; don’t use red delicious as they are for eating only, same for honey crisp apples.

This recipe is out of Gluten-Free Baking Classics Cookbook by Annalise G. Roberts with a few minor changes. I am betting you can use any GF flour mix in this recipe, crisp is not like a cake or other baked goods that have very specific flour requirements.

I have made the topping several ways. You can cut un-melted butter into the dry ingredients; it makes for a firmer crumb than the melted version below. I have made it egg free but it really somehow needs that egg to pull it together to mimic a wheat flour based crisp. The oats can be left out if you don’t like them or can’t eat them. I personally love oats in my crisp. A quarter cup of chopped nuts can be added to the topping; really a nice touch too. I don’t like it too sweet so I use the lesser amount of sugar. This is entirely a personal choice. You can up the nutritional value by adding flaxmeal to the dry mix; 2-3 tbsp.

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For those who love ice cream, this recipe is absolutely perfect with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream next to it. I like it warm from the oven but it also is tasty cold the next day, if you have any left over that is!

Angie’s Apple Crisp

3/4 cup GF flour (mix below)
½ to ¾ cup sugar (I prefer brown sugar)
½ cup old fashioned gf oats
1 ¼ tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
Sprinkle of nutmeg
½ tsp xanthan gum
½ tsp. salt
1 large egg
6 cups thinly sliced apples
¼-1/3 cup butter, melted

Directions:   Heat oven to 350 degrees. If your oven seems slow make it 375 degrees. Put a rack in the center level of oven. Lightly butter a 9 inch square pan or spray with cooking spray.

Combine all the dry ingredients. Add egg and stir to mix well. Place apples in the baking pan, top with the dry mix and sprinkle with the melted butter. Bake 40-50 minutes until bubbly and the topping is lightly browned. Let cool at least 10 minutes before dishing out. Six servings.

Brown Rice Flour Mix (same as King Arthur’s GF blend)
2 c brown rice flour (finely ground)
2/3 c potato starch – Not potato flour!
1/3 c tapioca flour