French-Style Apple Torte with Maple Tahini Cream

Last fall, I was walking 20 miles through the streets of Paris to make sure I got to visit every arrondissament, taking trains through the French countryside, and hanging out in wine bars in Bordeaux. This fall, I’m watching French dramas on Netflix and scrolling through “cheap dream home” listings on Instagram. Such is 2020. So here is this little French-style apple torte to make a fall spent sitting at home a bit sweeter. It’s a cake that is very light and barely sweet, it pairs well with coffee in the morning or wine in the afternoon and has a very ‘lazy day’ feel.

But why am I calling it a torte instead of a cake? What’s the difference? I’m glad you asked! There are a few different opinions on the subject, and I found this little write up from Food52 helpful in creating a semi-accurate definition. Since there is quite a bit of discussion on the matter, I’ll simply tell you why I’m referring this little pastry as a torte (whether it’s technically correct or not). First, it’s European in style. The inspiration for this torte came from two different places—German apple strudel, a pastry that is barely sweetened with no brown sugar or cinnamon, which are both very American apple pairings, and a Dorie Greenspan by-way-of-David Lebovitz recipe for a French Apple Cake. Second, tortes traditionally implement nut flours for a denser crumb. While this cake is not 100% nut flour based, the addition of almond flour gives texture and heftiness to an otherwise very light crumb. And third, it’s has a semi-elaborate decoration. Most tortes are known for their clean looks and fancy glazes. While this cake doesn’t implement any sleek decor, the arranged apple slices take a bit more time than simply folding them into the batter and gives a polished, finished look. And lastly, I’m calling it a torte because I want to. :) The maple tahini cream is beautiful scooped on top and if I close my eyes when I take a bite, it almost feels like I’m back in Paris.

P.S. If you’re looking to take a little getaway from the comfort of your couch, I wrote all about our European adventure last fall on the blog. You can check out my travel diaries here: Paris and Bordeaux.

French Apple Torte 

Yield: 1 8” cake

Ingredients

for the cake:

1/2 cup (80 g) all purpose flour

1/4 cup (25 g) almond flour

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp kosher salt

1/2 tsp ground cardamom

2 eggs

1 egg white

3/4 cup  granulated sugar, divided

2 tbsp rum

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup (113 g) unsalted butter

3-4 small apples, thinly sliced

for the maple tahini cream:

1/4 cup loose tahini

1/4 cup maple syrup

3/4 cup heavy cream, chilled

Procedure: 

1. Preheat oven to 350° F and line a 8” cake pan with parchment paper. Set aside

2. Place butter in a small saucepan set over medium heat. Cook, swirling occasionally for 6-7 minutes, until butter is foamy and fragrant, and browned bits begin to form. Remove from heat and transfer to a heat-proof bowl to cool while you prepare the rest of the ingredients. 

3. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, almond flour, baking powder, salt, and cardamom. Set aside. 

4. In a large bowl, whisk together the two whole eggs, 1/2 cup of sugar, rum, and vanilla extract. Add browned butter and continue whisking until smooth and homogenized. Add dry ingredients to the bowl and whisk gently until no flour streaks remain. 

5. In the bowl of stand mixer or using a hand mixer, whip egg white on medium-high speed until frothy. Add the remaining 1/4 cup of sugar and continue whipping until thick and glossy. The mixture won’t form peaks, but will be very thick and look marshmallowy. 

6. Use a rubber spatula to gently fold the egg whites into the cake batter until completely combined. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and arrange apple slices on top. 

7. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until the edges begin to pull away from the sides of the pan and the top springs back when touched. Let cool for about 10 minutes before removing from pan and continuing to cool. 

8. While the cake is cooling, make the maple tahini cream. In a small bowl, whisk together tahini and maple syrup until smooth. Using a mixer, whip cold heavy cream until soft peaks form, then stream in tahini mixture. Continue mixing until combined. Spoon soft whipped cream over warm apple cake. 

more recipes like this

a culinary travel diary: Paris

read more

a culinary travel diary: Bordeaux

read more

fall apple cake

go to recipe

Sourdough Spelt Brownies

I’m coming at ya with a little mid-week brownie inspiration. I make a lot of brownies, especially for special orders, but I realized recently that I only have one brownie recipe here on the site- what a travesty! So here’s a new one for you! I’ve been wanting to make both Izy Hossack’s Sourdough Brownies and Melissa Clark’s rendition of the Violet Bakery Rye Brownies for the last few months and decided to smoosh them both together and create these Sourdough Spelt Brownies. These are decidedly a grown-up brownie. The tang from the sourdough discard provides a sharp contrast to the deep, dark chocolate, and using a whole grain flour like spelt, really rounds out the flavor. These are nutty and complex, with fudgy centers and a crackly crust and they’re quickly climbing to the top of my “favorite brownies of all time” list.

In other news, I felt a slight breeze in the air this week which is a big deal for us Floridians. People all over the country have been eating soups and baking pumpkin loaves for a few weeks now, but I’m just now starting to consider trading in my iced coffee for something a little warmer. Fall is one thing I really miss about living outside of Florida. Both Nashville and Seattle gave us absolutely beautiful autumns, with orange-tinged trees and weather that just begged you to wear cute sweaters and as September wanes in October each year, I miss it tremendously. So I’m embracing our high of 83° and will make a lentil stew tonight and enjoy being able to spend a few minutes outside without sweat beading on my forehead. Happy first week of fall, y’all!

Sourdough Spelt Brownies

Yield: 1 9x13” pan

Ingredients

1/2 cup (113 g) unsalted butter

300 g chopped dark chocolate

80 g sourdough discard

1 1/4 cup (150 g) spelt flour

1/2 cup (50 g) cocoa powder

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp kosher salt

3/4 cup (150 g) brown sugar

3/4 cup (150 g) granulated sugar

4 eggs, separated

1 tbsp vanilla extract

Flaky salt, for finishing

Procedure 

1. Preheat your oven to 350° F and line a 9x13” baking dish with parchment paper. Set aside. 

2. Combine chocolate and butter in a large glass bowl and set it over a double boiler. Cook, stirring frequently, until completely melted and smooth. 

3. When the chocolate and butter are melted, remove the bowl from heat and whisk in brown sugar and 1/2 cup of granulated sugar. Let cool slightly. 

4. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, whisk together spelt flour, cocoa powder, salt, and baking powder. Set aside. 

5. Separate two of the eggs, placing the whites in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. 

6. Add the two egg yolks along with the two whole eggs to the chocolate mixture and whisk until completely combined. The mixture should begin to homogenize and take on a glossy sheen. Whisk in vanilla and sourdough discard. 

7. Use a rubber spatula to gradually fold in the dry ingredients, mixing just until no more flour clumps remain. 

8. In the stand mixer (or hand mixer) begin whipping the egg whites. When they start to become frothy, slowly stream in the remaining 1/4 cup of granulated sugar. When all of the sugar has been added, increase the mixer speed and whip until a smooth meringue with soft peaks forms.

9. Gently fold meringue into the chocolate mixture, only mixing until the white streaks are gone and the mixture is all one color. Pour batter into your prepared pan and sprinkle the surface with flaky salt. 

10. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean and then let cool completely in the pan before slicing. 

more recipes like this

espresso tahini brownies

go to recipe

sourdough chocolate chip cookies

go to recipe

toasted buckwheat and chocolate cookies

go to recipe

Einkorn Pecan Sticky Buns

Soft, buttery einkorn sweet dough, filled with spices and baked into a caramel pecan glaze. Perfect for lazy Saturday mornings and weekend brunches.

“Your recipes are too fancy.”— I get that A LOT. So I’ve been pondering this idea of fancy recipes over the past few weeks, vacillating between the idea that I should try to make my recipes a bit more mainstream in order to grab the attention of others while also really just wanting to make recipes that I absolutely love. Why not just make pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and get all the Instagram likes and Pinterest saves? Not that simple recipes are bad, but they just don’t excite me like tossing hawaij into snickerdoodles or stirring red wine into chocolate cake. I know I’ve written about this before, over and over again actually, but I feel very passionately that when it comes to the kitchen, we should be fancy! I think in our culture that is so easily overwhelmed by the kitchen, we look for rules and familiarity. We look for specific recipes and weekly meal plans that follow certain diets and we’ve lost that creative spark that comes with cooking. We want cookbooks that list out our entire week’s grocery lists and tell us exactly what to make each evening (and how much salt to add) and we’ve lost the ability to cook for pleasure and enjoyment. This is important because what if Thursday comes around and I am really not feeling the ‘one pan, quick and easy, fajitas’ that I painstakingly planned on Sunday afternoon?

So often in our minds, fancy = time = difficult and that is simply not true! How are we living in a time where we are so into self-care, refusing ourselves the opportunities to care for our food in the same way that we do our skin and our homes and our routines? For me, being fancy means exploring flavors, being creative and unique in my approach to baking, and investing in the food that I’m putting in my body. It means swirling salted honey into whipped creams and playing with funky flours. It means trying new things, helping people think a bit outside of the box, and occasionally, it means challenging myself a little bit. I want my recipes to make you feel fancy, because I think being fancy is a good thing.

In that same spirit, here is a fancy version of my momma’s sticky buns. We used to make these with canisters of Pillsbury crescent rolls and we were lucky if a batch lasted an entire day in our house. This rendition uses an enriched sweet dough, spiked with einkorn flour and is swimming in toasted pecans bound together by a very gooey brown sugar caramel and I hope you make them and let yourself be a little bit fancy this weekend.

Yield

8 sticky buns

Author

Anna Ramiz

Prep time

30 Min

Cook time

35 Min

Inactive time

16 Hour

Total time

17 H & 4 M

Print

With ImageWithout Image

Einkorn Pecan Sticky Buns

Soft, buttery einkorn sweet dough, filled with spices and baked into a caramel pecan glaze. Perfect for lazy Saturday mornings and weekend brunches.

Ingredients

for the dough

• 255 g all purpose flour
• 85 g einkorn flour
• 70 g (1/3 cup) whole milk
• 1 tsp active dry yeast
• 2 eggs, at room temperature
• 40 g (2 tbsp + 1 1/2 tsp) granulated sugar
• 113 g (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt

for the filling

• 56 g (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened
• 2 tbsp granulated sugar
• 2 tsp hawaij spice blend or 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon + 1/2 tsp ground cardamom

for the pecan glaze

• 113 g (1/2 cup) butter
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup toasted pecans, chopped

Instructions

to make the dough

1. Heat milk until warm to the touch. Combine warmed milk and yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook. Let proof for about 5 minutes, until foamy, while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
2. In a medium bowl, combine all purpose flour, einkorn flour, salt, and sugar. Set aside.
3. Lightly beat eggs and then add them to the mixer with the milk and yeast. Stir with a rubber spatula to gently combine.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the liquid and begin mixing, starting on low speed and gradually increasing speed, for 2-3 minutes, until a thick dough begins to form.
5. With the mixer running on medium-low speed, add the softened butter, one tablespoon at a time, until incorporated. Once all of the butter has been added, increase the mixer speed to medium-high and knead for 6-7 minutes, until a smooth, elastic dough has formed. Turn the dough onto a work surface and knead by hand for another minute and then shape the dough into a ball. Place the dough ball into a greased bowl, cover, and let proof at room temperature for 2 hours, until swollen and almost doubled in size.
6. After the dough has completed it’s first proof, you have a few different options for filling, shaping, and chilling.
7. Option 1: Punch down the dough, leave it in the bowl, covered, and let rest in the refrigerator overnight. In the morning, let dough rest at room temperature for about 30 minutes to soften. Roll the dough out, fill it, shape and cut the sticky buns, and place them in the pan for their final proof.
8. Option 2: When the dough has completed it’s first proof, punch it down and turn it onto a work surface. Roll the dough out, fill it, shape and cut the sticky buns, and place them in a pan. Cover the pan and let the buns rest overnight in the refrigerator. In the morning, remove them from the refrigerator and complete a final proof before baking.

to make the filling

1. Combine softened butter, sugar, and spices in a small bowl.

to make the caramel pecan glaze

1. Place butter in a small saucepan set over medium heat. Cook, swirling often, for 6-7 minutes until butter is beginning to brown, smells fragrant and nutty, and small, amber-colored specks appear in the bottom of the pan.
2. Immediately whisk in brown sugar, followed by the heavy cream. The mixture will look separated for a moment, but continue to whisk until it comes homogenizes. Add the vanilla and the salt and pour the glaze into a 9-inch round baking pan. Sprinkle with toasted pecans.

shaping, filling, and the final proof

1. After the dough has completed it’s first rise, turn it out onto a very lightly floured work surface. Roll the dough into a rectangle, about 1/8” in thickness and roughly 12x16” in size.
2. Use a small offset spatula or a knife to smear the filling mixture in a very thin layer over the surface of the rectangle, reaching all the way to the outside.
3. Starting on a horizontal edge, roll the dough into a tight log and use a serrated knife to slice the log into eight 2” pieces.
4. Place the rolls cut side up on top of the pecan glaze in your prepared pan. Cover and let proof for another 2 hours, until they’ve expanded about 3/4 in size. When the rolls have completed their final proof, preheat the oven to 375° F.
5. Bake sticky buns for 25-28 minutes, until the are deeply golden and the glaze is bubbling around the edges. Remove from the oven and let cool for about 5 minutes before inverting the pan onto a large plate. Enjoy warm!

Similar Recipes

Chocolate Tahini Brioche Babka

Bombolonis with Limoncello Cream

Pumpkin Brioche Swirls

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @gatheredatmytable on instagram and hashtag it #gatheredatmytable