Apple Cake because it's fall

Here is fall, in all it's orange, yellow, crimson glory. three weeks ago I was resisting this change in weather because it requires giving up some of my favorite foods. green beans (purple, yellow too), eggplant, tomatoes (though ours were long gone to the early 'late blight' this year). I've pulled all my carrots and planted seed for an early spring crop, I'm still working on cold frames.. in a very lazy way! I have very few beets in the ground and the broccoli rabe, which bolted long ago, we are eating our way through before its dead. the celery is still standing tall as well as the kale, leeks and some swiss chard, a great treat! it was a terrible summer for vegetables. with all the rain and cool cloudy days and our local deer problem it was a trial to get things going and keep them healthy. all that work makes me mourn even more the end of what little bounty I was reaping daily. deer ate all our winter squashes, strawberries, melons, some pole bean plants (right height!), the lima beans.. it was disheartening. all this damage even with deer fencing! but I do so look forward to starting all over again...
We are situated in a time and place that is embracing the local farm to table movement. we have a farm that's still functioning in a limited capacity after 250 years! What they don't grow they source local as they can. so I know when my garden fails me (or I fail my garden)  I have back up that is not the 'big name inserted here' food store. we have a newly formed farm alliance as well, the aim being to repurpose county land to feed our population as locally as possible. in a time when billions of people are going hungry and millions of pounds of food is wasted every year it is a refreshing thing indeed to go back to what comes naturally to us as people. FEEDING OURSELVES. our selves.
 What's fresh and local in the fall, here in the north east it is apples, pears, squashes, root veggies, some hardy greens, brussel sprouts..mmm, we'll get to those another day.
In the spirit of it all I pulled together an apple cake the other evening. part yummy apple cobbler crust and apple pie filling. while the concept is not original (if you've been following this blog you know my position on original recipes), I have my own version, of course.


                                         Apple Cake
8 -10 good cooking apples, tart green apples are nice too.

lemon juice

2 cups flour
1/2 cup steel cut oats
1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar
pinch of salt
6 oz COLD butter (1 1/2 sticks ) or 2 TBLsps more if crust isn't holding, cut in cubes

pinch of cinnamon, cloves, allspice, if you want. I prefer my spices in the crust, although that's not the norm for apple pies.



 *in place of oats you can use chopped nuts like pecans or walnuts, or a bit of both, cut the flour down by 1/4 cup.

Preheat oven to 350〫butter a 9 inch spring form baking pan.

Core and slice thin, 8 of the apples,you may peel them if you want, I like the skins. do the others later if you need them. set them aside in a bowl and sprinkle a bit of lemon juice on them, 1/2 cup of dark brown sugar, and what spices you'd like here if you wish.
In a food processor (or by hand) mix flour, oats, (nuts), sugar, salt, (spices if  using here). add 1/2 the cold, cubed butter pulse (or rub in with your fingers) until blended, add the rest and a bit more if needed. It is okay for this crust to be a bit crumbly, but not dry. dump crust into prepared spring form pan, reserving 1/2 cup, press dough into bottom and up sides of pan to the top. layer apples into the crust, slicing more if necessary. fill the pan and mound apples a bit on top. Sprinkle with remaining crust.
Cover the bottom and top with aluminum foil (this cake leaks butter out the bottom sometimes!) Count on this taking at least an hour to bake, it depends on the apples used. bake for 45 minutes, check it by inserting a knife into apples, if they aren't soft, put it back in the over for another 20 minutes, check again. when they are soft, take foil off and bake another 10 minutes. let cool, the apples are HOT. 

To serve, release the spring mold and carefully slide cake onto a large plate. (or, leave it on the spring mold bottom, then put the ring back on to store cake in fridge..if there are left overs!) enjoy!