What's an apple loaf recipe between friends?
A cake delicious and sturdy enough for a journey — also through the ups and downs of oven mishaps and longtime friendships
Bonjour! Bonjour!
Memory is such an odd thing — now there’s a sentence that could go in almost any direction. It’s what I thought when I was writing about being in Boston with Joanne Chang of Flour Bakery (here’s the story with a terrific recipe from Joanne).
Seeing Joanne reminded me of the apple cake she was making when I first met her - it was 1997 and she was on pastry chef François Payard’s opening team for his first patisserie. I’ve been lucky to have a life rich in cakes (cookies, pastries and good food, too), but I haven’t been blessed with a good memory. Most of the time I can’t remember cakes that I created for my own cookbooks — thank goodness I can look them up. Or I can bubble up a memory of an occasion but not the food. Or the food but not the moment. For me, it’s when food is tied to a person that it’s got the best chance of sticking in my brain. And my heart. Since the apple cake was the link between François, who was my friend, and Joanne, who was to become my friend, that memory’s locked in.
It’s because of this sweet tie that I’m declaring today’s recipe, a riff on the apple cake that brought me Joanne, one for the FRIENDSHIP FOOD file. And, as I do every month on Friendship Food Day, I’m making a contribution in honor of you, the supporting friends of xoxoDorie. This month we’re helping NO KID HUNGRY, which, among so many other things, works to support food programs in schools — a defense again childhood hunger. But first …
Some tasty miscellanies
Just before Easter, the subject line of the NYT Cooking newsletter (I love it and it’s free to everyone) was “Definitely the best carrot cake I’ve ever had” and right under it was an almost life-size picture of my beloved carrot cake. I was so surprised to see it! And I was even more delighted when I started to get messages from people saying they were planning to make the cake for Easter. I heard from a cousin who’d made it. Michael heard from a long-time friend who’d invited a bunch of people for Easter lunch and one of them brought the cake for dessert. A talented baker, who’s really a filmmaker, sent a picture of her cake topped with marzipan carrots and a friend of Joshua’s, a baking architect, sent him a snap of her cake — she finished it with colored Easter eggs. The recipe’s not new, but it’s still so good. Here’s the link to it (I’ve removed the paywall for you). While you’re there, take a look at the video that NYT Cooking added — it’s a beauty.
It’s the start of strawberry season here, which means you’ve got to be careful, since it’s also the start of dizzy time, the time when the scent of strawberries catches you even before you see the fruit and then three steps later you’re a little lightheaded. That fragrance is intoxicating! For all the years that I’ve been here, I’m still delighted when berry season begins and still happy to see the varieties. Still happy to dip into the archive and see strawberry posts from previous springs in Paris — take a look at this post from a couple of years ago, it’s got so many gorgeous pastries gathered by
of , some of which are perennials and back in the shops again. And I was completely delighted when I got the news that last week France claimed the Guinness World Record for the longest strawberry cake, a classic Fraisier. I hope that the team from just outside of Paris got extra points for making such a beautiful cake.
Whether or not you’re planning a trip to Paris and whether or not you’re new to Paris or know it like the back of your hand, if you love Paris, love Paris food and are fascinated by the history, culture and quirks of the city’s culinary landscape, then you’re going to be as crazy as I am about the brand new (today is its publishing birthday) Eater Guide to Paris (Bookshop / B&N / Amazon), written by my friend, the brilliant Lindsey Tramuta (who also writes The New Paris Dispatch). Yes, the book’s an arrondissement-by-arrondissement guide to restaurants, bars, markets and shops, but it’s also a book about Paris food from yesterday to tomorrow, about the culture of food here, the ways it is evolving and the ways it’s changing the city. It’s a must-read. Really.
The make-a-friend apple loaf
The apple cake that François Payard and Joanne Chang were making all those years ago was one that François’ father made in his patisserie in the South of France. I’ve changed things here and there in the recipe, but the spirit of the cake remains, assuring that it’s still a full-fledged member of what the French call a gâteau week-end or gâteau voyage, a sturdy loaf cake that’s a good keeper. I love that here even some of the fanciest pastry shops also sell chunky loaf cakes.
This gâteau week-end is reminiscent of a pound cake — it’s munchable and substantial. It’s the kind of cake you can have with coffee in the morning or tea in the afternoon. Top it with a scoop of ice cream and you can call it dessert. In my world, I’d call it an “Anytime Cake.” As Payard Père did, I include raisins that are infused with rum — it’s not a lot of rum, but it manages to flavor the entire cake (you can skip it and use vanilla, if you’d like). I also run chunks of apples through the batter and top the cake with some apple slices. As usual, all the details are in the recipe — scroll down for it. (Also as usual, the Friendship Food recipe is a thank-you gift for paid subscribers.) The cake is easy enough to make, but I made it three times before having confidence in the recipe.
Speaking of thank-you treats: readers who upgrade, renew, or are active in their paid subscriptions by May 30 will receive another exclusive sneak peek from my new book, Dorie’s Anytime Cakes. Tell your friends!
The saga of the lava-like apple-loaf fail
I started working out this recipe in Connecticut with my big American electric oven in Fahrenheit. The cake was perfect, but I didn’t like the way I’d arranged the apples — I’d quartered an apple and put the big pieces in the middle of the cake and then I put only slightly smaller pieces of an apple on top along the sides. I also didn’t like the way I finished it — it had too much of everything. Still, we ate every morsel. Then I came to Paris, rethought the apples — I decided on small chunks inside the cake and a fan of slices on top — and baked it in my convection oven. It looked beautiful … until I cut it: Even though I’d thought that it had tested done, when I cut it, the inside oozed unbaked batter.
The slow-flow ooze was dramatic. The cake was a failure. Well, not completely — the ends were baked and delicious. Post-disappointment, I found the culprit — me! I miscalculated the conversion from Fahrenheit to Celsius and flubbed the timing. The last time I made it here, it was pretty and baked through and we had our first slice of it on the balcony at golden hour. It was as good as the first perfectly-baked cake, but I was spooked, so I sent the recipe off to Mary Dodd to make it again in America in her big American electric oven. Everything checked out, including the deliciousness. For about the 9,000th time, I was reminded that no matter how much you bake and no matter for how many years — you’ll always learn something. In this case, the lesson was stick-to-it-tiveness. I wanted to give up. I didn’t give up. I got a good cake. And so will you.
Bake and share and maybe this apple loaf will help you make a good friend.
📚 You can find more recipes in my latest book Baking with Dorie, and get ready for Dorie’s Anytime Cakes by pre-ordering at Bookshop.org, Barnes & Noble or Amazon.
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MAKE-A-FRIEND APPLE LOAF CAKE
