Applesauce Streusel Cake

Every day brings a new culinary joy. Yesterday was Gingerbread Day. Today: National Applesauce Cake Day. So, how about this recipe to celebrate?

APPLESAUCE CAKE
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup applesauce
1/3 cup sour cream or plain yogurt
1 large egg, beaten
1 tablespoon freshly grated lemon zest
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/3 cup milk

STREUSEL TOPPING:

1/4 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons cold butter, cut into smaller pieces
6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup chopped nuts

Preheat the oven to 375F. Lightly grease an 8” square cake pan. Beat the sugar and butter together with a mixer at medium speed for 1-2 minutes or until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Add the applesauce, sour cream, egg and lemon zest and beat the ingredients for 1-2 minutes or until smooth. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg into a bowl. Add half the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and beat until well blended. Add half the milk and beat until well blended. Repeat until all the flour and milk have been used up. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Combine the streusel topping ingredients and mix them with your fingers, a pastry blender or two knives until the mixture is mealy. Sprinkle over the batter. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan 10 minutes then carefully invert the cake twice onto a cake rack to cool completely. Turn the cake right side up to cool completely.

Makes 8-10 servings

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Crumb Cake

Recently I bought a whole load of apples and have almost completed my yearly activity of making all sorts of apple desserts to put away in the freezer. I made pie, crisp, cake, my mother’s recipe for Raisin Bran crusted apples.

I also wanted to make apple sauce, but when I looked around I realized that in addition to all those apples, I had several plums and nectarines that were past their prime.

I hate to throw out food, so I made sauce, but only used two apples. The rest: 5 nectarines, 5 plums. A teaspoon of cinnamon. A tablespoon or two of sugar. All boiled down, just like applesauce, which we ate with roasted chicken.

But I had some left so I decided to use it to bake one of the recipes I have for applesauce coffee cake. I changed the formula a bit so that the seasonings would go better with mixed fruit, and I changed the streusel top to be nut-free (I used old fashioned oats).

The result: tender, moist, delicious coffee cake.

FRUIT SAUCE Crumb Cake:

• 1/4 cup sugar

• 1/4 cup butter

• 1/2 cup applesauce or other fruit sauce

• 1/3 cup sour cream

• 1 large egg, beaten

• 1 tablespoon freshly grated orange peel

• 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

• 1 tablespoon baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

• 1/3 cup milk

• streusel topping

 streusel topping: 

• 6 tablespoons all-purpose flour

• 1/3 cup old fashioned oats

• 1/4 cup brown sugar

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 3 tablespoons cold butter cut into small chunks

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease an 9-inch cake pan. Beat the sugar and butter together with a hand mixer or electric mixer set at medium speed for 1-2 minutes or until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Add the applesauce, sour cream, egg and orange peel and beat the ingredients for 1-2 minutes or until smooth. Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and ginger into a bowl. Add half the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and beat until well blended. Add half the milk and beat until well blended. Repeat until all the flour and milk have been used up. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle the streusel over the batter. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan 10 minutes then carefully invert the cake twice onto a cake rack to cool completely. Turn the cake right side up to cool completely.

To make the streusel: mix the flour, oats, brown sugar and salt together in a mixing bowl until they are well combined. Add the butter and mix the pieces into the dry ingredients with your fingers, a pastry blender or two knives until the mixture is mealy.

Makes 8-10 servings

Blueberry Crisp with Oat-Streusel Crust

Where I live (Connecticut), Memorial Day Weekend is the “official” start of outdoor grill/BBQ season. Sure, some people use their grills all year, even in the depth of winter. And some start around April. But the weather has been crummy, so — no grilling for me until this weekend.

I need a nice, summery dessert for after, right?

Here it is. Blueberry Crisp. Really simple and easy. Oaty, lightly sweet and with a gently crispy crust. You can make it dairy or parve. Goes well after anything you might have grilled for dinner. Good stuff for Father’s Day too. And July 4th.

Notice that there isn’t too much sugar in either the filling or the crust. Doesn’t need more.

Blueberry Crisp with Oat-Streusel Crust

Filling:

• 4 cups fresh blueberries

• 3 tablespoons sugar

• 1 tablespoon lemon juice

• 2 tablespoon all-purpose flour

Crust:

• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour

• 1/3 cup quick cooking or rolled oats

• 3 tablespoons brown sugar

• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 1/4 cup cold unsalted butter, vegetable shortening or margarine, cut into chunks

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine the blueberries, sugar, lemon juice and flour in a baking dish. Set aside. Place the flour, oats, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt in a bowl and mix ingredients to distribute them evenly. Add the butter and work it into the dry ingredients with fingertips or a pastry blender until the mixture looks like coarse meal (or pulse in a food processor). Place the oat mixture over the fruit. Bake for 30 minutes or until the crust is crispy and brown.

Makes 4-6 servings.

Plum Pie

I am the human equivalent of a squirrel. Every late-summer-early-autumn I gather up ingredients to make into food that I can store for the cold, hard winter that’s coming.

Surely, those of you who have been reading this blog know I’ve been knee deep - no, actually shoulder deep or thank-goodness-I-have-an-old-fridge-in-the-basement deep in prune plums. I saw them early in the season and couldn’t stop myself from buying pounds and pounds of them.

Well, I’ve poached some, tucked some under a crispy cover, baked some into torte and made a cake or two. And finally, I’m up to pie. Because my brother Jeff loves pie and cousin Neil likes plum desserts and when the pies are done the plum bin will finally be empty. And I will have a freezer full of desserts to keep us as happy as squirrels all winter long, but for the one pie I will serve at my annual Yom Kippur Break-the-fast next week.

Plum Pie

Dough for half crust pie

2-1/2 pounds Italian prune plums

2/3 cup sugar

2 tablespoons minute tapioca

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Streusel:

3/4 all-purpose flour

1/3 cup sugar

6 tablespoons butter, cut into chunks

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Roll the dough to fit a 9-inch pie pan. Crimp the outside to form a decorative edge. Wash and halve the plums and remove the pits. Cut the plums into slices and place in a large bowl. Add the sugar, tapioca, lemon juice and cinnamon and mix well. Place the fruit mixture inside the crust. Make the streusel: mix the flour and sugar. Add the butter and mix with your fingers until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs (or pulse in a food processor). Sprinkle the mixture over the fruit. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until the crust is crispy and golden brown. Makes one pie