Cinnamon-Sugar Apple Skillet Cake

To kick off the official start of fall yesterday, I'm sharing this apple recipe. After we picked apples a couple of weeks ago, this was the first recipe I wanted to make with our fridge full of apples. Joy the Baker is always a good place to start when you want to bake something, but my friend Colleen also made this cake earlier in the year and gave her stamp of approval. I stored it in the back of my head for fall and in a blink of an eye we're over halfway through September and fall is here! Here's to a season with college football on your TV + soup simmering on your stove + leaves crunching under your feet + a pumpkin spice latte in your hand.

Cinnamon-Sugar Apple Skillet Cake

1 1/2 cups flour

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1 tsp ground cinnamon

3/4 tsp salt

6 Tbsp (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1 egg yolk

2 tsp pure vanilla extract

3/4 cup buttermilk

3-4 apples, peeled, cored, and sliced into thin rounds

1/4 cup sugar + 3/4 tsp cinnamon for topping

Place rack in upper third of oven and heat oven to 375 degrees. Grease and flour the bottom and sides of an 8-inch or 9-inch cast iron skillet or cake pan.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.

In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat butter and sugar until well-incorporated and lighter in color, about 3 minutes. Add egg and yolk, beating for 1 minute between each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract.

With the mixer on low speed, add half of the flour mixture. Add the buttermilk and when flour is just combined with the butter mixture, add the remaining flour. Beat on low speed until most of the flour has disappeared into the mixture. Remove the bowl from the mixer and finish incorporating ingredients with a spatula. Spoon batter into prepared pan and spread evenly. Top generously with sliced apples and cinnamon-sugar. Bake for 25-35 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.

Serve cake warm. Cake should be wrapped in an airtight container and stored in the fridge for up to 3 days.

source: recipe from joy the baker

Apple Pie

This past weekend I made my first apple pie!  Yes, I am an American and I love to cook and I just now baked my first apple pie.  I had always been a little intimidated of the making of fruit pies.  I think it was mostly the crust that scared me, so I always made these apple pie squares instead.  But my parents were coming to town, and my dad and Caleb love apple pie.  So an apple pie it was!  And really, it was so much simpler than I anticipated.  I had made the pie dough ahead of time, so while dinner was in the oven on Friday night, I peeled and sliced all the apples and my mom rolled out the dough.  I had made homemade vanilla ice cream earlier in the week, and really - it doesn't get much better than a warm slice of apple pie with fresh vanilla ice cream.

Apple Pie

double crust pie dough (recipe below)

5-6 medium/large Granny Smith apples (about 2.5 lbs), peeled, cored, and thinly sliced

1/3 cup sugar

3 Tbsp brown sugar

1 Tbsp flour

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

2 Tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

On a lightly floured surface, roll out half of the pie dough into approximately a 12-inch round.  (Keep the other half of the pie dough chilled for now.)  Transfer the dough to a 9-inch pie plate.  Cover with plastic wrap and freeze for 30 minutes.

Heat the oven to 400 degrees.  Position an oven rack in the upper-middle position.  In a large mixing bowl, combine the sliced apples, sugars, flour, cinnamon, and lemon juice.  Toss well to combine.  When the bottom crust is finished chilling, pour the apple mixture and accumulated juices into the bottom pie crust and use a spatula to even the top out slightly.  Dot the surface of the apples with the pieces of cold butter.  Roll out the remaining pie dough on a floured work surface into approximately a 10-inch round.  Place over the apple mixture, and then fold the excess pie crust from the bottom pie crust over the top pie crust, and crimp to seal.

Place a baking sheet on the lower oven rack.  Place the pie on the upper rack and bake until the crust is golden brown and the juices are bubbling, 45-55 minutes.  Transfer to a wire rack and allow to cool for at least 30 minutes before slicing and serving.

source: recipe from annies eats, originally from williams sonoma & martha stewart

Basic Pie Dough

1 1/4 cups flour

1 Tbsp sugar

1/4 tsp salt

8 Tbsp cold, unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

3 Tbsp very cold water

Combine the flour, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.  Mix briefly to blend. Add in the butter pieces and mix on medium-low speed to cut the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles coarse sand and the largest butter pieces are not much bigger than peas.  Mix in the cold water on low speed just until the dough comes together (you may not use all the water).

Shape the dough into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.  (This dough can be frozen for up to 2 months.)  Remove from refrigerator.  Roll out the dough on a lightly floured work surface.  Use as directed in your desired pie recipe.

*Yields one 9-inch pie crust, so double the recipe for a double crust pie

source: recipe from annies eats, originally from williams sonoma

Apple Pie Squares

When we lived in China, English reading material was a precious commodity.  I had read all of the books I owned about four times, and I was desperate for anything new.  So I started reading old issues of Good Housekeeping that were lying around the house.  (I was in 9th grade.)  In one of those issues, I found this recipe.  I made these for the first time in China, in our tiny oven that was no bigger than an Easy-Bake oven.  Since then I've tried to make them every fall.  I'm not a big fan of the traditional apple pie, but I do love these squares with the buttery shortbread crust and the streusel topping.  If you're overwhelmed with the variety of pies expected for Thanksgiving dinner, skip the apple pie and make these instead!

Apple Pie Squares

for the streusel

1 cup flour

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 Tbsp vanilla

1 tsp cinnamon

Mix all ingredients together until mixture comes together.  Shape into a ball.  Cover and chill.

for the shortbread crust

3 cups flour

1/4 tsp salt

1/3 cup sugar

1 cup cold butter

Combine flour, sugar, and salt.  Cut in butter with pastry blender until mixture resembles fine crumbs.  Press crumbs into the bottom of a greased 9x13 baking dish.  Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes, or until crust is lightly browned.

for the apple mixture

3 Tbsp butter

3 lbs apples, peeled, cored, and sliced into 1/2" pieces

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

3/4 tsp cinnamon

1 Tbsp + 1 1/2 tsp cornstarch

3 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

While the crust is in the oven, melt butter in large skillet over medium heat.  Add apples, sugar, and cinnamon and cook 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.  In a small bowl mix cornstarch and lemon juice; stir into apples until thickened.  Remove from heat.  Spoon apples over warm crust.  Place pieces of chilled streusel topping over the apples. Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes or until streusel is golden.

source:  recipe adapted from an old issue of Good Housekeeping