Recipe – Torta di Mele // Tuscan Apple Cake

Ingredients

  • 6 Apples; peeled and cored tossed lightly with lemon juice
    • 3 diced
    • 3 thinly sliced
  • 2 cups All Purpose Flour
  • 4 Eggs
  • 8 tablespoons of Butter (unsalted)
    • 7 melted in sauce pan
    • 1 for topping
  • 1 cup Sugar
  • 1/3 cup Milk
  • 2 teaspoons Baking Powder
  • 1 Lemon; zested and juiced (separated)
  • 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
  • 2 tablespoons of Amaretto
  • a pinch of Salt
  • Cinnamon to taste
  • a few sprigs of Rosemary
  • Demerara Sugar

Instructions

The steps are a choose your own adventure based on how you want to prepare your bake. Do the following if you don’t plan and pull ingredients from the shelfs as you good:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 F
  2. Prepare apples; dicing 3 apples and thinly slicing 3. Toss lightly in lemon juice to prevent discoloration
  3. Butter inside of 9 in springform pan, dust with flour
  4. Whisk together 2 cups of flour, cinnamon (to taste), 2 teaspoons of baking powder, and salt (pinch)
  5. In large mixing bowl, mix 4 eggs and 1 cup of sugar. You can use power mixer to mix until creamy texture
  6. Combine flour mixture with sugar and egg mixture in large mixing bowl, mix until incorporate and batter is smooth. Don’t overmix!
  7. Melt 7 tablespoons of butter in a saucepan (or microwave)
  8. Once butter cools add 1/3 cup of milk, lemon zest, 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract, and 2 tablespoons of Amaretto (ok to heavy pour)
  9. Stir butter, milk, etc. mixture until combine then pour into batter and mix until incorporated.
  10. Fold in diced apples
  11. Pour batter into prepared springform pan
  12. Smooth top of batter and place apple slices to cover the top of the cake; I prefer a spiral pattern for the aesthetics
  13. Press layer of apple slice gently into batter but not allowing the batter to cover apples
  14. Sprinkle top with Demarara Sugar, Rosemary, and dot with remaining tablespoon of butter
  15. Bake for 70-80 at 350 F until apples are golden brown; cake should be slightly moist when tested with toothpick
  16. Let rest and cool for 30 mins before removing from pan; allow another 30 minutes on cooling rack before cutting and serving