Since 2020, Americans have consumed between fifteen and nineteen pounds of apples per person per year. Whoa!
Time to amp up your apple consumption if you haven’t been doing your part.
This apple cake is tasty as a simple breakfast cake with a steaming cup of tea or delicious served at the end of lunch or dinner with a dollop of whipped cream or, better, a scoop of your best vanilla ice cream.
This recipe is from one of Renato Poliafito’s five cookbooks, Dolci! American Baking With An Italian Accent. You can order the cookbook through your local bookstore or at Amazon here. The photography, both food and scenic, is especially beautiful in this cookbook and the recipes are delicious.
Poliafito is a two-time James Beard-nominated chef and the owner of Caio, Gloria Bakery and Cafe in Brooklyn, where this Apple Torta is a fall favorite of customers. Of his recipes, famed cookbook author Dorie Greenspan wrote “The recipes are roadmaps to making every day more delicious.” Who could want more than that?
This Apple Torta is reminiscent to the traditional Italian torta di mele
Here is the recipe as I prepared it in my kitchen:
Apple Torta
Ingredients
- 3 large apples (Granny Smith or Honey Crisp
- I used Granny Smith)
- 2 C. all-purpose flour
- 1 1/4 t. baking soda
- 1 t. fine sea salt
- 1 t. ground cinnamon
- 1 C. granulated sugar
- 1/2 C. dark brown sugar (packed)
- 2/3 C. canola oil (I used grapeseed oil)
- 3 large eggs (room temperature)
- 1 t. vanilla extract
- 2/3 C. yogurt (or sour cream)
- Powdered sugar to decorate (optional)
Directions
- Step 1 Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare a 10-inch round cake baking pan by spraying it with cooking spray and lining it with parchment.
- Step 2 Grate 2 of the apples. Thinly slice the other apple.
- Step 3 Sift flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon together in a bowl.
- Step 4 Using the bowl of your stand mixer and the paddle attachment, mix granulated sugar, dark brown sugar and oil together. Add eggs one at a time. Add vanilla and scrape down the sides of the mixer bowl.
- Step 5 Add the sifted flour mixture one third at a time and alternating with addition of yogurt (or sour cream) to the sugar/egg mixture . Scrape down the sides of the bowl as you are mixing these ingredients.
- Step 6 Fold in the grated apple. Mix to combine. Spoon the batter into the prepared cake pan and smooth the top with an offset spatula. Arrange the sliced apples attractively on top of the batter. Bake the cake for 80-90 minutes until it is puffed and a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan before removing it to a serving plate. Dust with powdered sugar and serve. Cake becomes more moist as it ages and is best on days 2 and 3.
