Apple Cake
| Ingredient | English | 1x | 2x | 3x | 4x |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Salted Butter | 113 g (8 tablespoons), cut into chunksor 113 g unsalted butter plus 1/4 tsp salt | 113 g | 226 g | 339 g | 452 g |
| Granny Smith Apples | 12 oz (340 g), peeled | 340 g | 680 g | 1.02 kg | 1.36 kg |
| Honeycrisp or Gala Apples | 12 oz (340 g), peeled | 340 g | 680 g | 1.02 kg | 1.36 kg |
| Granulated Sugar | 1 cup (200 g) | 200 g | 400 g | 600 g | 800 g |
| Large Eggs | 2 | 100 g | 200 g | 300 g | 400 g |
| All-Purpose Flour | 1/2 cup (64 g) | 64 g | 128 g | 192 g | 256 g |
| Baking Powder | 2 tsp | 9.6 g | 19.2 g | 28.8 g | 38.4 g |
| Kosher Salt | 1/2 tsp | 3 g | 6 g | 9 g | 12 g |
| Whole Milk | 1/2 cup (120 g), room temperature | 120 g | 240 g | 360 g | 480 g |
| Lemon Zest | 1 tsp (about 1 lemon)or about 1/3 tsp dried lemon zest | 2 g | 4 g | 6 g | 8 g |
| Vanilla Extract | 2 tspor 1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped | 8.4 g | 16.8 g | 25.2 g | 33.6 g |
Finishing
| Ingredient | English | 1x | 2x | 3x | 4x |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Granulated Sugar | 1 tbsp, for sprinkling the top | 12 g | 24 g | 36 g | 48 g |
| Powdered Sugar | for dusting | — | — | — | — |
Pantry swaps
| Original | Swap1 | Swap2 | Swap3 | Swap4 | Swap5 | Swap6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Salted Butter | 1 cup margarine | 1 cup shortening plus 1/2 teaspoon salt | 7/8 cup vegetable oil plus 1/2 teaspoon salt | 1 cup shortening | 7/8 cup vegetable oil | Unsalted Butter |
| 1 | 1 | 1 | 0.875 | 1 | 0.875 | 1 |
| Granulated Sugar | 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar | 1-3/4 cups confectioners' sugar (makes baked goods less crisp) | 1 cup superfine sugar | |||
| 1 | 1 | 1.75 | 1 | |||
| All-Purpose Flour | 1 cup plus 3 tablespoons cake flour (not advised for cookies or quick breads) | 1 cup self-rising flour (omit baking powder and salt from recipe). Reader suggestion: 5/8 cup potato flour | 1-1/4 cups rye flour or coarsely ground whole-grain flour | 1 cup cornmeal | ||
| 1 | 1 | 1 | 1.25 | 1 | ||
| Baking Powder | 1/4 teaspoon baking soda plus 1/4 teaspoon cornstarch plus 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar | |||||
| 1 | 0.25 | |||||
| Whole Milk | 1/3 cup instant nonfat dry milk plus 3/4 cup water | 1/2 cup evaporated milk plus 1/2 cup water | 3/4 cup 2 percent milk plus 1/4 cup half-and-half | |||
| 1 | 0.333 | 0.5 | 0.75 | |||
| Lemon Zest | 1/2 teaspoon vinegar | 3 tablespoons bottled lemon juice and 1 teaspoon dried grated rind | Dried Lemon Zest | |||
| 1 | 0.5 | — | 0.5 | |||
| Vanilla Extract | Vanilla Bean | |||||
| 1 | 0.119 | |||||
| Powdered Sugar | 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar | 1-3/4 cups confectioners' sugar (makes baked goods less crisp) | 1 cup superfine sugar | |||
| 1 | 1 | 1.75 | 1 |
This is an apple cake that is more apples than cake – a heap of paper-thin slices barely held together by a thin, crepe-like batter, with crisp, deeply caramelized edges and a custardy interior. Milk Street learned it from home cook Franca Giuliani in Padergnone, in the Trentino region of northern Italy. It bakes up no taller than an inch, puffs a little like a Dutch baby, and is barely sweet – which is why a dusting of powdered sugar finishes it well.
Method
Heat the oven to 375F (190C) with a rack in the middle position. Mist the bottom and sides of a 9-inch round cake pan with cooking spray, line the bottom with kitchen parchment, then mist the parchment.
In a small saucepan over medium-high, cook the butter, swirling the pan often, until the milk solids at the bottom are deeply browned and the butter has a nutty aroma, 3 to 5 minutes. Scrape the butter into a small heatproof bowl and set it aside to cool while you slice the apples.
Peel the apples, cut them into quarters, notch out the core from each piece, and slice them about 1/16 inch thick. A mandoline makes quick work of this. Use no more than 1 1/2 pounds of apples before peeling and slicing.
In a large bowl, whisk the sugar, eggs, and lemon zest until pale and thickened – the mixture should form a ribbon when dropped from the whisk.
Whisk in the flour, baking powder, and salt. While whisking, gradually add the milk, then the cooled browned butter and the vanilla.
Add the sliced apples and toss with a spatula so every piece is coated with the thin batter. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and pat the top even with your fingers, then sprinkle the top with the sugar.
Bake until the top is deeply caramelized and the cake has puffed and begun to pull away from the sides, roughly 45 to 60 minutes; rotate the pan about halfway through. Cool in the pan, then run a knife around the edge and turn the cake out. Serve at room temperature (some prefer it cold), dusted with powdered sugar. Refrigerated, it keeps up to two days.
Notes
Servings: 8 (one 9-inch cake, per serving). Per serving: 313 kcal, 3.2 g protein, 47 g carbs, 13.4 g fat, 2.3 g fiber. Macros are estimates summed from USDA per-100 g values (salted butter, apples, sugar, eggs, all-purpose flour, milk, lemon zest, vanilla) and divided by 8; fiber is included and comes almost entirely from the apples.
Quantities – read this before you bake. The source recipe page is member-paywalled, and the reel that links to it is a promo teaser with no quantities spoken or shown on screen. Only three amounts are published by the source: 113 g (8 tablespoons) salted butter, 12 oz Granny Smith apples, and 12 oz Honeycrisp or Gala apples. Every other amount above (sugar, eggs, flour, baking powder, salt, milk, lemon zest, vanilla, and the finishing sugars) is an ESTIMATE reconstructed from the parent recipe this one is adapted from – the widely published Bolzano apple cake from The Essential New York Times Cookbook (Amanda Hesser), which uses 1 stick butter, 2 eggs, 1 cup sugar, 1 1/4 lb apples, 1/2 cup flour, 2 tsp baking powder, and 1/2 cup milk. Treat those amounts as a starting point, not gospel, and adjust to taste.
Method. Step 1 is the source’s own published instruction, verbatim. Steps 2 through 7 follow the source’s own prose description of its method from the accompanying Milk Street story – brown the butter, whisk sugar, eggs, and lemon zest, then whisk in the flour, baking powder, and salt, gradually add the milk, then the browned butter and vanilla, coat the apples, and bake at 375F with sugar sprinkled on top. Baking time (45 to 60 minutes) is estimated; the source lists a 2-hour cook time that includes cooling.
- Use salted butter, as the source specifies; if you only have unsalted, add about 1/4 teaspoon salt (see the swap in the ingredient row).
- Don’t exceed 1 1/2 pounds of apples (before peeling and slicing). More than that and the batter steams in the oven, giving a gummy texture and ruining the crisp edges.
- A 50/50 mix of Grannies and Honeycrisp or Gala is the source’s default. Grannies hold their shape; the sweet apples bring flavor.
- The cake is deliberately not very sweet and is best at room temperature.
Source: Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street, “Apple Cake (Torta Bolzano)” (Facebook reel). https://www.facebook.com/reel/1433837678695366
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