Inverted Apple Tart Cupcakes

Awhile ago I had the idea that you might be able to replace the wrapper in a cupcake with very thinly sliced apple. I decided I wanted the cupcakes to be some sort of cross between a cake and a tart, and so I used a frangipane based cake recipe I modified from Orangette. The result was something that was sort of like an apple upside down cupcake, and was really delicious. The cake was especially almondy. Overall though, I’m honestly not sure it was worth the trouble, as getting all the apple slices made and the cupcake cups lined with them was a bit of a pain. The almond cake recipe is good enough on its own though that it is certain to show up again. Most of the work in this recipe shows up in the assembly section, I tried to take decent pictures. The cake actually comes together really easily. Use Granny Smith Apples for this recipe, they stay firmer than most others when baked (I tried Golden Delicious on a test cupcake, they just fell apart). To make thin strips out of the apples I used a vegetable peeler. I used this type, except I got a cheap one at Kroger for $1. It’s surprisingly effective, though you should be very careful not to peel your fingers (I’ve done it several times now).

Almond Cake

Makes ~ 9 cupcakes

½ cup flour

½ cup ground almonds, or almond flour/meal*

1 tsp. baking powder

Pinch of salt

8 T (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

¾ cup sugar2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 tsp. almond extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk together the flour, ground almonds, baking powder, and salt.

2. Put the butter and sugar in the bowl of a standing mixer, and beat until fluffy. Add the eggs, flour, and extracts and beat until combined.

3. Set the dough aside while preparing the apples.

*You can make almond flour by grinding blanched almonds in a food processor until they reach a sandy consistency (this is what I did). I've been told you should be careful not to overdo it, otherwise you can end up with almond butter. You can also buy almond flour / meal at some grocery stores or specialty stores.

Assembly

2 Granny Smith Apples

1. Peel an apple. Cut the apple into quarters and remove the core. Use the apple peeler to cut very thin strips of apple.

2. Layer the strips around the cupcake pan. Press the apples in hard so that they take the shape of the cup. Make sure the apples overlap, to try to reduce the amount of cake that gets through to get stuck to the pan.

3. Fill each apple lined cup with a little less than a ¼ cup of batter. I recommend using a measuring cup and a spoon to get the batter in. Try to be careful, because once the batter gets in there, you really can’t move it around without messing up the apples.

4. Bake the cupcakes for 17 – 20 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean.

5. Let the cupcakes cool to room temperature on a wire rack. Once they are cooled run a dull knife around the edges of the cupcakes, then invert onto a flat surface. I didn’t frost these, because I thought they were good as is. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.

I'm Going to Pretend These were Supposed to be Fritters

One of my favorite memories from childhood is Christmas morning. Every Christmas morning, before I would get up, my mom would get up and make a batch of doughnuts. We weren’t a big fried foods family, so these were a wonderful treat. They were airy and sugary and chocolaty, generally wonderful. No donut I’ve had elsewhere (I admittedly do not go seeking doughnuts) has ever compared. This summer my mom decided to get rid of her deep fryer, since she hadn’t used it in years, and so I took it.

I should say, prior to this I have never tried to deep fry anything. This is for a number of reasons: first there is of course the health concern, deep fried food is bad for you, and getting into the habit of making it seems risky. There’s also something inherently frightening to me about oil heated above water’s boiling point. Isn’t this what they used to defend castles in the Middle Ages? Nonetheless, I decided to overcome my hesitations and attempt to make doughnuts.

At first I was only going to make one type of doughnut, and it being autumn I settled on apple cider doughnuts, a recipe for which had just gone up on Coconut and Lime. I made the dough, set it aside to rise, and went about my other business. But when I came back an hour and a half later, the dough hadn’t risen at all! Running low on time, I decided to try two things, to make a new batch of the cider doughnut dough, and a dough for chocolate doughnuts, which I found here. Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough time between when I started and when my guests arrived for either recipe. So I made each of them, and gave them as much time as I good (the chocolate dough ended up in the freezer to cool). What I definitely didn’t have time to do was to roll out and cut the doughnuts, and in the case of the apple doughnuts, to let them have a second rise (I really didn’t get much of a first). Instead I just used two spoons to get out little balls of dough, which I gently dropped into the hot oil. For those of you who don’t know, this is immensely stupid. When dealing with hot oil, you do NOT want to drop things in, as you risk splashing hot oil out of the fryer. Fortunately, I was able to minimize my burns, but I highly recommend that you be careful, and be sure to wear shoes (that oil that misses your hands is still heading down towards your feet). This technique worked fine for the apple doughnuts, which really just ended up resembling apple fritters. It did not seem to work at all for the chocolate doughnuts, some of which stayed together, others of which literally boiled themselves apart into little pieces of doughnut shrapnel floating in my hot oil.

Anyway, when all was said and done I had apple fritters. I coated them very lightly in a mix of powdered sugar and cinnamon, and served them. I can’t comment on the texture of the recipe as it was intended, but I thought my fritters were good, if not a little too doughy. As for flavor, they tasted like lightly sweetened, fried dough. I really didn’t think the apple came through as anything more than a hint, and even that might have depended on my knowing it was there.

Since these recipes were not my own, and I didn’t make them particularly successfully, I’ve decided not to repost them here. However, the links to both recipes are below if you are interested in making your own attempts (these bloggers clearly had more success than I did). Maybe I’ll try again someday with my Mom’s old recipes and a little more time.

Coconut and Lime’s Apple Cider Doughnuts

Use Real Butter’s Chocolate Doughnuts

Another Trip to the Orchard

Sorry about the lack of posts of late, I know it’s been over a week since my last. It has been an incredibly busy time for me, I’ve been travelling a lot lately, and had a whole lot of work to do, and just haven’t had the time to bake. Fortunately, my schedule has opened up, and my friend C______ has come to visit. Today we made a trip to the apple orchard, and then made some apple cupcakes. It seems like every time I go to the orchard a cupcake results. These cupcakes were pretty similar to those actually, I made an apple chiffon cake, filled with apple curd, and topped with a spiced whipped cream. These cupcakes tasted really good, but were a bit messy to eat. The curd wasn’t quite firm enough, and so really leaked out when people bit into them. I used muscavado sugar in the cupcakes, which I was hoping would add some depth of flavor, which it did. If you don’t have it, substituting plain granulated is just fine.

I had a little trouble with the curd for these cupcakes. I used my standard curd recipe, but when it went to set it separated, I don’t know why. I ended up putting it back on the heat and adding another egg and more lemon juice. This caused it to come together. My guess is that if everything went in at the start, it would come out fine, and that’s how I’ve listed the recipe. If other people try it and have trouble, I can work on figuring it out, otherwise, there are other recipes for apple curd online.

Apple Cupcakes

Makes 14 cupcakes

1 ½ cups flour
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
1 cup muscavado sugar
2 eggs
3/8 cup vegetable oil
½ tsp vanilla
½ tsp lemon zest
½ apple juice (I used Mott’s all natural) 

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Whisk in the sugar.

2. In a separate bowl beat together the eggs, oil, apple juice, and vanilla

3. Fill cupcake liners with a ¼ cup measure. Bake cupcakes for ~20 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean (the recipe at cupcake bakeshop says to bake for 30 minutes). These cupcakes are very moist, and somewhat sticky on top.

Apple Curd

Makes about a cup

3 egg yolks

1 whole egg 

¾ cup sugar

½ cup apple juice (I used Mott’s all natural) 

¾ tsp lemon

3 Tbs butter, cut into chunks

1. Whisk together the egg yolks, sugar, Apple Juice, and lemon juice. Place the mixture over a double boiler and begin heating.

2. Stirring constantly, heat the mixture until it is hot to the touch, or 170 degrees F on a candy thermometer. Make sure you don’t let the mixture get to boiling.

3. Remove the mixture from the heat, and let it sit for 30 seconds. Stir the butter into the curd until it melts. Put the curd into the fridge to let it set.

Spiced Whipped Cream

Makes more than you need

2 cups whipping cream 

¾ cups powdered sugar 

¾ tsp cinnamon 

½ tsp fresh ground nutmeg

1. Using a chilled bowl and beaters, beat the whipped cream and the powdered sugar until stiff peaks begin to form.

2. Add the cinnamon and nutmeg. Beat to combine, scrape down the sides and beat to combine again. Refrigerate until using, and re-whip right before using.

Assembly

1. Use a knife to cut a cone in the top of the cake. Cut off the bottom of the cone.

2. Fill the hole with apple curd, place the top of the cone back over the hole.

3. Frost with whipped cream.