An apple a day

Sunday as a day of rest is a great idea, but everyone still wants to eat and eating out can get expensive.  If you don’t eat out, somebody has to fix a meal, so here’s a little something to help you out.  It goes perfectly with a glass of milk, a cup of coffee or a cup of tea to start your day or for dessert later on. No matter what you make for the entree, there’s nothing like a simple, tasty dessert that also looks and tastes amazing.  I made it last week and gave a piece to our daughter’s Japanese teacher.  That was my first request for the recipe.  (She even bought the non-dairy butter.)  I also took a couple slices along for us to snack on during the farmer’s market, (when we could take a break from selling chevre), and Rob remarked that it was really good and he wouldn’t have known it was vegan.  If you don’t want to tell anyone it’s vegan, they won’t know.  Or you can make it for your vegan friends. They’ll love you for it.  I made mine with homemade applesauce but since I almost always make a recipe as written the first time, I did use the non-dairy butter.  Next time I’ll try it with all applesauce.  I look forward to trying a lot more recipes from this cookbook.

Enjoy!

Hmmm, did I bake that with a piece missing?

German Apple Cake

(Versunkener Apfelkuchen)

The Joy of Vegan Baking, Colleen Patrick-Goudreau

(8-10 slices)

Ingredients—cake

2-3 apples, depending on size, peeled and cut into slices
½ c. (112 g) non-hydrogenated, nondairy butter
½ c. (100 g) granulated sugar
½ c. (125 g) unsweetened applesauce
2 T. (30 ml) nondairy milk
1 ½ c. (188 g) unbleached all-purpose flour
2 ½ t. baking powder

 Ingredients—topping

¼ c. (60 g) firmly packed light or dark brown sugar
½ t. cinnamon
½ t. ground ginger

Preheat oven to 350 (180 C, or gas mark 4).  Lightly grease a 9” (23-cm) springform pan.

To make the cake, cook apples in a little bit of water on the stove or in the microwave until they’re just a little soft but not mushy. (I put them in the microwave for no longer than 1 ½ min.)  Set aside.

With an electric hand mixer or by hand using a wooden spoon, cream together the butter and sugar.  Add the applesauce and milk.  Finally, add the flour and baking powder, and stir until just combined.

Add the batter to the prepared pan, and arrange the apple slices in a circle on top of the cake.

To make the topping, mix together all three ingredients and sprinkle over the apples, covering the top of the cake.

Bake for 30-40 min., or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  Let cool for 15 min. before unmolding from the cake pan.

Variation:  To make this cake completely fat-free, use 1 c. (245 g) applesauce and eliminate the nondairy butter.

Reprinted with permission by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau. All rights reserved 2012.