The Healthy My Ass Cookbook

Apple Torte

Aunt Clarice's first place award winning contest entry.

Ingredients:

Directions:

Place the salted Butter in a large bowl and the unsalted Butter in a medium bowl to soften to room temperature.

Combine the Flour and Baking Powder and set aside.  Likewise combine 1/3 cup of the Sugar with the Cinnamon and set aside.  Divide the remaining 2 cups of Sugar into separate 1 cup portions and set aside.

Lightly grease and flour a springform pan that is at least 9" wide and 2&3/4" deep or if wider, it can be less deep.

Without peeling, core and slice the apples into about 8 wedges per apple.  An apple corer and slicer does the job nicely.  Set aside.

Cream the salted butter in the large bowl until it is light and fluffy.  Gradually beat in a cup of sugar, a little at a time through continuous beating.  Scrape the sides of the bowl with a spatula.  Beat in on high 2 of the Eggs, one at a time and beating between additions until well blended in each time.  Scrape the sides of the bowl.  Add the Vanilla and beat in until uniform in color.  Gradually blend in the flour/baking powder mixture, starting on low and increasing the speed as needed until all is blended in well, scraping the sides of the bowl at least once.

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Evenly spread the doughy batter into the bottom of the greased and floured pan.  Starting at an outer edge, push the apple wedges into the dough to the bottom of the pan standing up and core side facing inward to circle the entire side of the pan.  Repeat another circle inside that circle etc., until the entire pan is filled with apples resembling a flower with apple wedges for petals.  It should look like a really large Outback's Bloomin' Onion® or Chili's Awesome Blossom®.  Sprinkle the sugar/cinnamon mixture evenly over all.

Bake for one hour and 10 minutes.

Before the baking period is up, cream the unsalted butter in the small bowl until it is light and fluffy.  Gradually beat in the remaining cup of sugar, a little at a time through continuous beating.  Scrape the sides of the bowl with a spatula.  Beat in on high the 2 remaining Eggs, one at a time and beating between additions until well blended in each time, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed.

Remove the pan from the oven when the initial baking period is up and reduce the oven temperature to 325°F.  Spread the butter/sugar/egg mixture over the hot torte.  Return it to the oven and bake for an additional 20 minutes.

Let cool at least an hour and a half, or until you can hold your hand against the side of the pan.  Use a knife to loosen the sides of the pan, then unlock, open and remove.  Serve warm with ice cream or cooled with whipped cream.

Notes:

My aunt did not specify salted or unsalted Butter.  In fact, she even said "or margarine".  Maybe that's why she was thin and I'm not.  However, she did specify Jonathan Apples so those are all I've ever used, but she did say to pare them and yet I leave the peeling on.

My aunt said to use either a tube pan or a spring form pan.  I'm pretty sure she used a tube pan, but even she admitted that it is very difficult to get it out of a tube pan in one piece with the top side up.  I suppose one of those two-piece tube pans might have made it easier, but I've just opted for the spring form pan, removing the sides and serving it on the bottom.  Her instructions said to bake the torte for one hour, and that might have been fine with a tube pan since the hollow tube facilitates baking from both the outside and the center.  But I found that the spring form pan requires as long as an hour and 10 minutes of baking.  Likewise, I increased the baking of the topping from her 15 minutes to my 20 minutes.

If available, I use Baker's Sugar, a.k.a. Superfine Sugar or Caster Sugar, for the topping.