During Passover this year, I made two flourless desserts. After making the Flourless Chocolate Cake from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking, I also made Nigella Lawson's Apple and Almond Cake.
This cake includes a homemade apple puree and I used Pink Lady apples for the recipe. I peeled and chopped the apples and cooked them with sugar and lemon juice until soft, and them mashed them into a puree. After the puree was cooled, I put it in the food processor with eggs, almond flour, sugar, and lemon juice. I poured the batter into a 10-inch springform pan that was buttered and lined with parchment, sprinkled on sliced almonds, and put it in the oven to bake.
The cake baked up completely level and came out of the pan without any trouble. Even though the recipe says that this cake is best served warm, I took it to the office the following day so I served it at room temperature. I received some remarkably positive feedback about this cake, including the first compliment I have ever received in Latin: "Non sum dignus" (I am not worthy). I tasted a piece after work and was not that impressed. The cake had the same wet sponge texture as the flourless chocolate cake from earlier in the week that I did not like. I was afraid that the damp cake wouldn't keep very long at room temperature, so I put the leftovers in the fridge.
Two days after baking the cake, I ate a piece out of the fridge and it was a totally different experience. The wet sponge texture had been transformed into a fine-crumbed texture like a rich butter cake. But unlike most butter cakes, it actually tasted great cold. I felt that putting the cake in the fridge was like pulling off some sort of gluten-free magic trick; it would easily pass for a cake made with butter and flour. The cake doesn't have much apple flavor, but the apples provide needed moisture in place of butter. And because I used very fine almond flour, there was no noticeable texture from the nuts in the cake itself (although of the course the sliced nuts on top added some nice crunch). I would be curious to taste this cake warm, but I was absolutely delighted to eat it chilled.
Recipe: "Apple and Almond Cake" from Feast by Nigella Lawson.
This cake includes a homemade apple puree and I used Pink Lady apples for the recipe. I peeled and chopped the apples and cooked them with sugar and lemon juice until soft, and them mashed them into a puree. After the puree was cooled, I put it in the food processor with eggs, almond flour, sugar, and lemon juice. I poured the batter into a 10-inch springform pan that was buttered and lined with parchment, sprinkled on sliced almonds, and put it in the oven to bake.
Two days after baking the cake, I ate a piece out of the fridge and it was a totally different experience. The wet sponge texture had been transformed into a fine-crumbed texture like a rich butter cake. But unlike most butter cakes, it actually tasted great cold. I felt that putting the cake in the fridge was like pulling off some sort of gluten-free magic trick; it would easily pass for a cake made with butter and flour. The cake doesn't have much apple flavor, but the apples provide needed moisture in place of butter. And because I used very fine almond flour, there was no noticeable texture from the nuts in the cake itself (although of the course the sliced nuts on top added some nice crunch). I would be curious to taste this cake warm, but I was absolutely delighted to eat it chilled.
Recipe: "Apple and Almond Cake" from Feast by Nigella Lawson.
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