Apple Crumb Cake with Sour Cream & Sourdough Discard

We were headed to a potluck with one of The Hubs' Homebrew Groups, and I needed something to use this week's sourdough discard in. We also had a container of sour cream that needed to get used up, and some of last year's apples from our backyard tree hanging out in the freezer.  When I searched the interwebz for a "sourdough sour cream apple cake"...I got a lot of "sourdough apple cakes" and "sour cream apple cakes"...but no crossover.  So--I found a couple different recipes I liked, mixed & matched, and this was the end result.

Note: This results in some of the measurements below being in grams, and some in dry measurements--this is because the sourdough substitution is based on weight, rather than volume--I removed 75g of flour and 75g of sour cream from the cake layer to make up for the addition of the 150g of sourdough discard.

INGREDIENTS:

Apple Layer:

• 3 cups frozen or fresh sliced apples, peeled (sliced thin or cubed)
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 Tbsp butter
• 1.5 Tbsp lemon juice
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg

Cake Layer:

• 1.5 sticks unsalted butter, room temp
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 170g sour cream (about 2/3 cup)
• 3 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 150g sourdough discard
• 240g all-purpose flour (should be a little shy of 2 cups)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt

Crumb Topping:

• 1 stick unsalted butter, melted
• 3/4 cup flour
• 1/2 cup quick oats
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup white sugar 
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup pecans, crushed

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
2. In a medium saucepan, combine the APPLE LAYER ingredients and bring to a boil.  Lower the heat and let simmer until apples are very soft, around 20 minutes.  Remove from heat--it will continue to thicken as it cools.
3. In a separate medium bowl, melt the butter for the CRUMB TOPPING, then add the remaining ingredients and mix with a fork until crumbly.  Set aside.
4. Using a large bowl and hand mixer, or a stand mixer, combine the room temp butter and sugar and beat until fluffy. Then add the eggs, sour cream, vanilla, and sourdough discard and mix until smooth.
5. Remove the bowl from the stand mixer and weigh the flour into the bowl, then add the salt, baking powder and baking soda. Place back on the mixer and blend until combined.
6. Pour CAKE LAYER into a buttered 9x13 pan and smooth out.  Then add the APPLE LAYER onto the cake batter, and use a butter knife to swirl the mixture evenly into the CAKE LAYER.
7. Add the CRUMB TOPPING layer evenly across the top of the pan, and bake for 40-45 minutes.

Cake Layer.

Apple Layer added & swirled in.

Crumb Topping added.

This works well as a dessert, or as a coffee cake for breakfast!

Thirsty Thursday: Caramel Apple

Need a quick & easy yet tasty concoction to soothe your sweet tooth?  Well, if your booze collection looks anything like mine (a random assortment of half-drunk bottles and a plethora of tiny 100mL plastic “shooters” bought on a whim of “ooh, that could be tasty…but I’m only willing to commit 99 cents to find out”), you may on occasion need help coming up with something to throw together.

 

Have you met the My Cocktail Bar app?  Just enter the ingredients you have on hand, and it will tell you what you can make.  Pretty handy dandy lil’ tool.  And it happens to be where I got the idea for today’s libation.

INGREDIENTS:
Salted Karamel Vodka (100 mL)

Sour Apple Pucker (50-100 mL)

Apple Juice (100 mL)

Ice

 

Just combine & cheers!  The Karamel vodka is really smooth and the Pucker keeps it from being too cloying.

Caramel Apple Cheesecake Burritos!

Oh yes.  Yes indeed.  I saw these on Pinterest and there was no turning back.  Especially since we had some apples in our fruit basket that were starting to soften.  I don’t know about you, but once an apple loses that reallllly crisp crunch, I don’t want to have anything to do with it in its raw form.  In their baked form?  But of course!

As you know, I’m usually all about FeauxFrying foods by baking them at high heat in the oven.  But sometimes…you just really gotta fry something.  There’s a crispiness and a golden color that just can’t be matched by oven frying.  But we can make it healthier by pan-frying rather than deep frying, and using juuuuuuuuust enough oil to coat the pan, rather than several cups worth.

FYI….this is totally delicious and decadent.  AND super easy.  I whipped them up in under 15 minutes.

Ingredients: (makes 4 burritos)

8 ounces of fat free cream cheese, softened
4 Tbsp powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon
4 flour tortillas (soft taco size, 6 or 8")
2-4 Tbsp vegetable oil, for frying (the original recipe calls for using a lot more, but it’s really not necessary.  You just need enough to coat the bottom of your pan.)

2 apples, peeled, cored, and diced
1/2 stick light butter
1 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup pecans
2 Tbsp sugar free caramel sauce
A few dashes of apple pie sice (for garnish)

Directions:

In a saucepan, combine the apples, butter, sugar, pecans and cinnamon over medium-low heat, for about 10 minutes or until apples are tender.

On a separate burner, start a large skillet with the oil over medium high heat.  The oil should just barely start to smoke.

In a small bowl, combine the cream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon.  Use a spatula to divide the contents of the bowl into four fairly equal portions.  Lay out your tortilla, and place one portion of the cream cheese filling in the center. 

Fold in the sides, and then roll to make a cute lil’ flat burrito.

Place this in your skillet, fold-side down.  (Cooking the fold side first helps seal the packet and firms up hat side so it won’t flop open while cooking.)

It shouldn’t take long—just cook until lightly golden & then flip.  Once both sides are cooked, then let drain on a paper towel while you cook the rest.

Serve each burrito on it’s own plate, and top with 1/4 of the apple mixture.  Drizzle 1/2 Tbsp of caramel sauce over the top of each, and a dash of apple pie spice if desired (or just more cinnamon if you prefer).

De…freakin’…vine.  And so easy.

Now: is this a “healthy” dessert?  At 489 calories….err…Not quite.  But given that the original version (with extra oil, full-fat cream cheese, regular butter, and regular caramel sauce) would run about 850 calories per serving, we’re DEFINITELY doing better.  And this is a fairly decent sized dessert.  So if you’re looking to serve 4 people (who are all watching their waistlines), you could opt to make two burritos and have two people share.  After all, isn’t that half the fun of a dessert—the sharing?  :)

NutriFacts: (per burrito)

Calories 489.1

  Total Fat 22.5 g

  Saturated Fat 6.6 g

  Polyunsaturated Fat 5.8 g

  Monounsaturated Fat 7.1 g

  Cholesterol 10.0 mg

  Sodium 902.1 mg

  Potassium 149.9 mg

  Total Carbohydrate 59.7 g

  Dietary Fiber 4.5 g

  Sugars 21.6 g

  Protein 13.6 g

Recipe: Cran-Apple Crisp!

 

So, after making the cranberry orange sauce for Thanksgiving, I had some extra fresh cranberries laying around to use up.  Apple crisp is one of my favorite desserts—a recipe handed down from my mom.  So…why not a cranberry apple crisp?  Two delicious harvest time fruits, and a crisp is just such a fabulous dessert…and relatively healthy as desserts go.  The only fats come from the butter in the crumble topping, and if you’re concerned about calories from the sugar, you can opt for Splenda baking blend, which is half regular sugar, and half Splenda.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups cranberries, washed 
  
• 3 cups sliced, peeled apples
  
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar (or Splenda baking blend)
  
• Juice from 1/2 lemon (or about 1 tbsp)
  
• 1 tbsp orange juice
  
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
  
• 2/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
  
• 1/2 tbsp cinnamon
  
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg 
  
• 1 cup quick cooking oats
  
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour (wheat flour, if you have it)
  
• 5 tablespoons butter, softened in the microwave for 15 seconds

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 325.  Combine the cranberries, apples, sugar, and citrus juices in a 8x8 pan & toss well.

(LOVE those colors!)

Mix the rest of the ingredients together in a bowl until they come together:

Then sprinkle the crumbly topping evenly over the fruit, covering the top.  Place in overn & bake for 45 minutes to an hour, or until the crust is well browned & the fruit is bubbly.

Dig in while still warm.

Makes 12 servings.

Nutrifacts:

Calories 167.0

  Total Fat 2.8 g

  Saturated Fat 0.8 g

  Polyunsaturated Fat 0.8 g

  Monounsaturated Fat 1.0 g

  Cholesterol 0.0 mg

  Sodium 40.2 mg

  Potassium 90.6 mg

  Total Carbohydrate 39.5 g

  Dietary Fiber 2.9 g

  Sugars 28.5 g

Protein 1.6 g

Linked on 33 Shades of Green's Tasty Tuesday and The Sweet Spot.