Dessert for a Nontraditional Thanksgiving: Custardy Apple Squares

Thanksgiving was a stripped down affair this year. I made dinner for just three people (me, my husband, and one other person) and we ate outdoors in our backyard at an appropriate social distance. Fortunately, the weather cooperated and it was unseasonably warm and sunny. While not being able to travel or gather freely with family and friends is disheartening, I decided that the unusual circumstances freed me from the need to observe any Thanksgiving dinner traditions. I'm not a fan of roast turkey and I particularly dislike the fact that the holiday seems to have morphed into an celebration of overindulgence where the expectation is to overeat. So I decided to make a lighter meal of what I wanted to eat, traditions be damned. 

 

I made Martha Rose Shulman's kale salad with apples and cheddar, Dorie Greenspan's mushroom and shallot quiche, Nigella Lawson's salt and vinegar potatoes, and Japanese milk bread rolls. I wanted a small dessert, so I made Dorie Greenspan's Custardy Apple Squares from Baking Chez Moi, a cake baked in an 8-inch square pan. 

In the headnote, Dorie refers to this as a "back-pocket recipe" that you can make on the spur of the moment when you need a last minute sweet. The cake does come together quickly. I whisked a mixture of eggs, sugar, and salt until it was pale and the sugar had dissolved; added vanilla, milk, and melted butter; incorporated flour; folded in very thinly sliced apples (I used two Gold Rush and one Fuji apple that I sliced on our Benriner mandoline); and poured the mixture into the parchment-lined pan. When I checked the cake at the minimum specified baking time, the edges of some of the apples were already a bit singed, so I took the pan out immediately and let the cake cool before serving. Dorie says this cake can be served warm, at room temperature the day it's baked, or chilled.

I meant to dust the cake with some powdered sugar right before serving but forgot. I wish I had served it with whipped cream or ice cream because I thought this cake was underwhelming. While it was mostly apples held together with a custardy batter, I thought the cake tasted mostly of vanilla and not apples. I think a little more salt might have helped. But I do have to say that this dessert was nice and light and it's the first time in recent memory that I have finished Thanksgiving dinner and felt pleasantly satisfied, not overly full. 

 

Our dinner was decidedly nontraditional, but I thought it was a fine way to celebrate Thanksgiving. And perhaps more than ever, I am profoundly grateful for our good health and many blessings.

 

Recipe: "Custardy Apple Squares" from Baking Chez Moi by Dorie Greenspan, recipe available here at Serious East.