Maple-Apple Pudding Cake

There hasn't been much dessert action happening here on this blog o' mine and that's going to change starting with this cake. Loaded with fruit, this recipe caught my eye. And then I saw it was saucy and was still intrigued.  No, I don't understand why the sauciness was intriguing when I'm generally anti over-sauced food. It did help that my kitchen was already outfitted with the majority of the ingredients, maple syrup in particular. The recipe calls for a lot of maple syrup.

Maple-Apple Pudding Cake

adapted from Cooking Club of America

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1 c all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 egg
1/2 c packed light brown sugar
1/2 c whole milk
1/4 c unsalted butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 medium apple, such as Braeburn, peeled, chopped (1/2 inch)(1 cup)
1 c fresh or frozen cranberries, coarsely chopped (don’t thaw if using frozen)
1 1/4 c pure maple syrup, preferably grade B
1/2 c apple juice
1/3 c chopped walnuts

Heat oven to 350°F. Butter an 8-inch square glass baking dish.

Whisk flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon in large bowl.

 

Whisk egg and brown sugar in medium bowl until smooth.

 

Whisk in milk, butter and vanilla.

 

Stir into flour mixture just until dry ingredients are moistened.

 

Fold in apple and cranberries.

 

Pour into baking dish.
 

Bring syrup and apple juice to a boil in small saucepan.

 

Gently pour over batter; sprinkle with walnuts.

  
After sprinkling the nuts over the soupy batter, I verified the oven temperature. Turning back to the prepared dish, I noticed that already the batter was rising to the surface.

Bake 35 to 45 minutes* or until top of pudding springs back when lightly touched and sauce forms on bottom (do not overbake).
Cool 20 minutes on wire rack; serve warm.

 
*Mine was done in 35 minutes, so don't make the assumption of going long.


If you try this you have to promist me that you will have it with ice cream. You'll have done yourself a disservice if you don't! The cake is very nice with a nearly crisp top and moist crumb, but the sauce is fantastic and would have been perfect pooled under or over a scoop of vanilla bean. Regardless, milk, water, or coffee to wash this stuff down is an absolute necessity because this dessert is very sweet.

Cost:

• flour: $0.22
• egg: $0.29
• brown sugar: $0.22
• milk: $0.25
• butter: $0.21
• apple: $0.46
• cranberries: $0.50
• maple syrup $2.32
• apple juice: $0.13
• walnuts: $0.31

Total: $4.91 or $0.55 for each of nine servings.

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Note: Tonight there were four pieces of nine left in the dish. I scooped three servings into individual bowls for later and popped the last piece into the oven, original baking dish and all. I'll tell you right now that the very thin shiny layer of sugary syrup on the bottom of the dish was awesome: as it cooled it gradually became more like a hard candy which is neat. And instills a very slight desire to make candy.