Tuesday 20 May 2014

Apple - spelt flour cake

Apple - spelt flour cake

I confess I have never been a big fan of apple cakes or tartes. Probably because those I tried or I was offered always turned out to be far from my tastes: now too sweet, then too buttery, now with too much cinnamon (which I'm actually not really fond of), then so humid to be difficult  to swallow. And this is why when it comes to choose which cake to prepare, apple cakes are usually at the bottom of the list.
But this time I felt like making an apple cake to eat at breakfast, since I and my child love to eat something sweet in the morning and I like that this treats are healthy. I had a look at the note book on which I write down inspiring recipes and, among the very few apple cake recipes I have taken note of, I found one containing spelt flour in the batter. Since I love the texture and taste of  spelt flour and in particular the whole-grain one, I wanted to give a chance to apple cake. I made some changes to the original recipe (I hadn't even taken note of the source so I cannot mention it) and came out with this recipe which I - and also some guests who tried it - did really like and think it's worth sharing.


Apple - spelt flour cake

Apple - spelt flour cake
makes a 20 cm Æ tarte
100 gr whole-grain spelt flour
50 gr rice flour
100 gr granulated golden cane sugar
50 gr raisins (optional)
2 eggs
50 gr delicate extra-virgin olive oil
125 gr yogurt
3 apples
juice of 1 lemon
6 gr baking powder
zests of 1 lemon
1 pinch of sea salt
Notes: the recipe is quite versatile, therefore several substitutions can be made according to your taste
- whole-grain flour can be replaced by white flour for a less rustic result
- raisins can be omitted or substituted for walnuts or pine-nuts; if you like you can also soak the raisins into some liquor (Calvados, rum, Cointreau), before adding them to the batter
- other vegetable oil (corn germ, sunflower, ...) or rice oil can be used instead of olive oil
- yogurt can be made of cow or soy milk
 instead of lemon zests it is possible to add cinnamon, which is typically used in apple cake (but as I said before I am not real a cinnamon lover)
Peel the apples, slice about half apple into thin slices for decorating the top of the cake and cut the rest into 2 cm pieces; then put them into a bowl filled with water and lemon juice. This prevents apples to brown. Preheat the oven to 180° fan mode and line with parchment paper a 20 cm Æ cake tin (or grease and flour it, if you prefer). Sift together the flours and baking powder. Using an electric mixer, beat the sugar with salt and one egg at a time until the mixture is pale and fluffy.  Add lemon zests, oil and yogurt and amalgamate. Using an hand whisk or a spatula add the powders and amalgamate gently. Drain the apple pieces and add them to the batter, add also raisins and mix gently.Pour the batter into the cake tin, decorate the top with apple slices and bake for about 55 to 60 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.
Slice of Apple - spelt flour cake

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