September 20, 2008

Caramel-Apple Walnut Cake

It´s unfortunate that it´s getting to be fall. I´m not sure I´m ready for another cold, long, dark winter. One thing I do love about fall though is the apples - applesauce, apple cakes, apples & caramel, apple butter, apples in baked goods, warm apple cider. Throw some cinnamon, cloves, ginger, & nutmeg in with it, and mmm, yum. The smell of fall.

It´s too bad we´re both getting colds, otherwise I´d totally be out tomorrow to one of my favorite farms around getting some apples to make this recipe.

Peach Blueberry cake

We recently bought a bunch of peaches. I was going to can some, which I did, but we mainly ate them for breakfast, dinner, and then made a couple of these Peach Blueberry cakes, which we love. We first found this recipe two summers ago, made it then, then somehow forgot about it last year. I remembered it again this year. It has a wonderful fresh taste, just sweet enough, and I find it hard not to eat more than my share.

The recipe is fairly simple. Original recipe calls for quick cooking tapioca, but since I never have that on hand, I experimented with using cornstarch instead, and it works well.

Peach Blueberry cake recipe
Serves 8

Ingredients

Pastry Crust:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla

Peach blueberry filling:
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 TBSP cornstarch
2 lb firm-ripe large peaches (about 4), peeled, halved lengthwise, pitted, and each half cut lengthwise into fourths
1 cup blueberries
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice (bottled lemon juice works ok too)

1 Mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt until combined. Add butter and cut it in just until mixture resembles coarse meal with some small (roughly pea-size) butter lumps. Add egg and vanilla and stir just until dough clumps and begins to form a ball.

2 Butter and dust with flour the inside of a 9 or 9.5 inch springform pan. Press dough (about 1/4 inch thick) onto bottom and evenly about two inches up side of springform pan. Chill pastry in pan until firm, about 10 minutes.

3 Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 375°F.

4 While the pastry chills, combine sugar, flour and cornstarch. Add peaches, blueberries, and lemon juice and gently toss to coat.

5 Spoon filling into pastry and bake, loosely covered with a sheet of foil, until filling is bubbling in center and crust is golden, about 1 3/4 hours.

6 Transfer cake in pan to a rack and cool, uncovered, about 20 minutes, then carefully loosen or remove side of pan.

Cake may come out of the oven looking kind of liquidy still. The liquid will gel as the cake cools.




ItÅ› great with a (generous) dollop of freshly whipped cream.

Recipe originally found here.