flying fox apples and french apple cake

This cold weather and early snow calls for a little something special with the afternoon PG Tips. I have been hoarding Maggie’s beautiful heirloom apples but yesterday's weather prompted me to finally use them.

I was recently in Southwestern France for work and was inspired by the small town farmers markets. It is fairly easy to find a market there on any given day. My favorite was a biodynamic market that sold organic fruit, vegetables and grains. Whenever we are traveling for work, I make it a mission to seek out these little markets. You never know what you will find. I am always on the look out for local specialties like honey and sea salt or liquor to take back home. At one of the markets in France there was a woman selling a very simple French apple cake. It was a plain and unassuming cake that tasted of butter and apples and not a trace of cinnamon which I find  to be highly overused where apples are concerned. The weekend before the storm I ventured down to New Amsterdam Market. The wind was wild and the rain was just settling in, but faithful vendors were there nonetheless. Maggie of Flying Fox had the last of the season's apples along with some beautiful medlars and quince.

Yesterday, I found a recipe worthy of her gorgeous apples, a simple French apple cake by Dorie Greenspan via David Liebovitz’s blog that perfectly matches that simple cake from the French market. 

I made one substitution; instead of rum I used armagnac that I picked up in France.

This is a perfect cake for an afternoon tea or with a morning espresso. Come to think of it, it is just plain perfect anytime.

Marie-Hélène's Apple Cake

 recipe via David Liebovitz blog 

 Makes one 9-inch  cake

Adapted from Around My French Table by Dorie Greenspan.

ingredients:

3/4 cup (110g) flour

3/4 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
4 large apples (a mix of varieties)
2 large eggs, at room temperature
3/4 cup (150g) sugar
3 tablespoons dark rum (I substituted armagnac)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
8 tablespoons (115g) butter, salted or unsalted, melted and cooled to room temperature

1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF (180ºC) and adjust the oven rack to the center of the oven.

2. Heavily butter an 8- or 9-inch (20-23cm) springform pan and place it on a baking sheet.

3. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

4. Peel and core the apples, then dice them into 1-inch (3cm) pieces. ( use a mix of kinds. I used a mix of hierlooms)

5. In a large bowl, beat the eggs until foamy then whisk in the sugar, then rum and vanilla. Whisk in half of the flour mixture, then gently stir in half of the melted butter

6. Stir in the remaining flour mixture, then the rest of the butter.

7. Fold in the apple cubes until they’re well-coated with the batter and scrape them into the prepared cake pan and smooth the top a little with a spatula.

8. Bake the cake for 50 minute to 1 hour, or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Let the cake cool for 5 minutes, then run a knife around the edge to loosen the cake from the pan and carefully remove the sides of the cake pan, making sure no apples are stuck to it.

Serving: Serve wedges of the cake just by itself, or with crème fraîche.

Storage: The cake will keep for up to three days covered. Since the top is very moist, it’s best to store it under a cake dome or overturned bowl.

Black Oxford, Old Maids Winter, D'arcy Spice and Hidden Rose... just a few of Maggie's beautiful hierlooms from The New Amsterdam Market.

The beautiful pink one is called Hidden Rose for it's surprising pink color.

 

 good butter makes the cake...

 juniper tea and a little peruse of the wild unknown tarot cards, so beautifully illustrated...

 

sour sops and solstice.

Sunday marked the close of another great year at The New Amsterdam Market. The stalls were full of fish, oysters, smoked trout and eel. It was everything the market should be. The last thing I expected to see was a stall full of beautiful tropical fruits handpicked by Maggie Nescuir at Flying Fox. She ventured down to Holmstead Florida this past week to handpick an astonishing and magical assortment of fruits, some of which I had no idea grew anywhere in the United States. I was inspired by her pilgrimage. On this shortest day of the year, know that tomorrow the days begin to get longer and we are one step closer to the light. Happy Winter Solstice!

1.  Satsuma

2. Chinese Honey 

3. Longans

4. Canestel (Egg fruit)

5. Guanabana (Sour Sop) 

6. Sapodilla (chocolate fruit)

7. Kejaja Wild 

8.Ruby blush

9. Newhall Navel (a red fruited orange)

10. orlando tangelo

11. lemon guava

12. chinese honey 

13. murcott honey  

14. passion fruit

 

quince and medlars.

Medlars are a rather uncommon fruit one that most people have not heard of. They are native to the Mediterranean and are a close relative to the Hawthorne tree or pear tree.

A few weeks ago, Maggie Nesciur from Flying Fox had a few little boxes of Medlars at The New Amsterdam Market. They had been collected by Ezekiel Goodband of Scott Farm in Dummerston Vermont (whose name I just adore) where she had gone in search of heirloom apples. Though they are native to the Mediterranean, they somehow grow in Vermont where Goddband has some trees sprinkled throughout his orchard. Like the amazing fruitier that she is Maggie couldn't resist sharing some of these tiny gems at her stall at the market.

When I purchased the Medlars they were quite hard and very tart as they were not at all ripe. I kept them on my counter in a little bowl for a full two weeks until they began to soften. A Medlar is ripe when it is almost rotten and very soft and juicy quite like a persimmon and  when it is a beautiful orange red inside. I had a quince around and decided it was high time to make something of these uncommon beauties.

I decided since I had such a small amount to make a Medlar quince butter with a few apples thrown in for good measure.

I cut them up and threw them all in to a pot (seeds and all) with two cups of water, the juice of one whole lemon and let them cook down to a veritable mush. I put them through the Foley food mill; one my favorite kitchen tools and discarded the remaining solids. I ran it through a fine sieve after the food mill just to make sure the texture was very smooth and there were no remaining bits of pulp or seeds. 

I returned the mixture to the stove added one more cup of water and a cup of sugar and let it cook down until it was thickened.

The result is something akin to apple butter but with a subtle quince and pear flavor. The color is a beautiful pink and the three little Weck jars lined up on the counter were incredibly satisfying. I canned two of the jars in a water bath so I could save them for long-term storage.

So far we have been eating it on toast with a little slice of Harpersfield Tilsit cheese from Upstate New York that has been aged with a smoky Lapsang Souchong black tea. The smokiness of the cheese and the tart sweetness of the Medlar is the perfect combination.