How to Make Chef John's French Apple Cake
Embark on a culinary journey with Chef John's French Apple Cake recipe! This video tutorial unlocks the secrets to creating an authentic dessert masterpiece. Watch as simple ingredients like apples, flour, and sugar transform into a moist, aromatic delight. With Chef John's expert guidance, you'll master every step, from slicing apples to achieving the perfect golden crust.
Transcript
00:00 Hello this is Chef John from foodwishes.com with French Apple Cake. That's
00:08 right France is famous for its fabulously fancy pastries and baked goods.
00:12 So when you tell someone this is your favorite French cake you're gonna get
00:16 some skeptical looks. But you know what I think it's true. This simple rustic
00:21 easy to make cake is absolutely amazing. And if you like cakes or apples this has
00:26 to go on your baking bucket list. So with that let's go ahead and get started by
00:31 prepping our cake pan. Which we want to generously butter and then flip over and
00:36 then fold a piece of parchment in half and then in quarters and then an ace.
00:40 Keeping a nice sharp point just like we're making a paper airplane. And once
00:45 that's been folded as much as we can we will put the point right in the center
00:48 and then use some scissors to trim right along the edge of the pan. We will end up
00:54 with a circle that perfectly fits the bottom. And then once we have that placed
00:58 in and has some butter on it we can flip it back over and we can make sure that's
01:03 perfectly centered and coated with butter. And while this is an optional
01:08 step and your cake will probably come out if you don't do this. I've never been
01:12 a big fan of probably in the kitchen so I suggest we do it. And then once our pan
01:17 is prepped we can move on to cutting up some apples. And what I have here is some
01:21 honey crisp which are not a classic baking apple but they work great in this.
01:26 And what we'll do is cut these in half and then with the flat side down we'll
01:31 cut on either side of the core. And then we'll tip that centerpiece on its side
01:35 and we'll make one more cut to remove the core. And then once our apple has
01:40 been prepped as shown we'll go ahead and slice these pieces about every 3/8 inch.
01:45 And then once sliced we will turn them and slice across every 3/8 inch to
01:51 create these nice little rectangles that I think are the perfect size and shape
01:55 for this cake. Oh and in case you're wondering yes we are supposed to peel
01:59 the apple first and you probably should for the best final product. But
02:03 personally I leave it on mostly for nutritional reasons but also I think it
02:08 gives the cake a better color and flavor. And the only downside which doesn't
02:13 bother me is it as you're eating you will perceive a little tiny bit of
02:16 crispiness from the skin. Which I do not mind and in fact kind of like. But
02:22 classically the skin is removed. But anyway you decide. I mean you are after
02:28 all the Chef John of your Gatoa Palm. But either way we're gonna want to end up
02:33 with about three and a half to four cups of cut up apples which we will transfer
02:37 into a mixing bowl and then toss them with one of our secret ingredients. Which
02:42 would be some apple cider vinegar which we will drizzle over and then we'll use
02:47 our hands or spatula to toss these until they're evenly coated. And yes that does
02:52 help prevent discoloration but it also helps add one more layer of flavor. And
02:57 when it comes to flavor you can't have too many layers. But anyway once our
03:02 apples are prepped we can move on to mixing up our dry ingredients. Which
03:06 simply means adding some salt and baking powder to some all-purpose flour and
03:10 then giving it a quick mix with a whisk. And then we'll set that aside and we are
03:16 ready to move in the final production. So what we'll do is add some white sugar to
03:21 some room-temperature butter along with a little bit of brown sugar. And then
03:25 we'll take a whisk or hand mixer like this and we will beat this until it's
03:29 nice and light and fluffy. And as usual we will start slow but once it starts to
03:34 cream together we can switch to high speed. And please do not try to do this
03:39 with cold butter. Right that will be a nightmare. Actually worse than a
03:43 nightmare. Okay sometimes nightmares are interesting. Doing this with cold butter
03:48 will not be interesting. It will just be annoying. So definitely leave your butter
03:52 out to warm up. And then what we'll do once our mixture looks like this is
03:56 blend in two whole eggs which we want to do one at a time. And with the first one
04:01 here start really slowly and don't mix too much of the butter into the egg when
04:05 you first start. Okay wait until you see it start to emulsify and then we can
04:09 get a little more aggressive and we can mix more and more of the butter in until
04:13 we've achieved a nice smooth creamy mixture. At which point we'll add the
04:17 second egg and do the exact same thing. And by the way fair warning if you go
04:22 too fast this mixture will split and separate and look all grainy and
04:27 generally horrible. But if that happens do not get mad, do not get upset, and do
04:32 not under any circumstances start over. Alright we never let the food win. Just
04:38 simply move to the next step and I promise your cake will still come out
04:42 fine. Okay the texture might not be quite as perfect as if it didn't split but
04:46 there's not a huge difference and it will still be amazing. And then once
04:50 those two eggs have been mixed in we will pour in a generous amount of rum
04:54 followed by a little bit of pure real vanilla extract and then just about half
04:59 of our flour mixture. And then once all that's in there we'll give this a mix on
05:03 low speed just until that flour disappears. And once it does we can stop
05:08 and add the rest of the flour which we could blend in using the mixer like we
05:13 just did. But I like to switch to a spatula for a little more control since
05:18 we don't want to over mix this too much. And I feel like the spatula gives me
05:22 more feel. That is just how I feel. So that is exactly what I did. And once
05:29 that's been mixed in we can grab our apples and we can transfer those in and
05:35 we will use our spatula to fold all that together before transferring it into our
05:39 cake pan. And if you make a lot of apple desserts you might be thinking didn't
05:43 you miss some ingredients? I mean where's the allspice? Where's the clove? Where's
05:48 the nutmeg? And the cinnamon? What about the cinnamon? Did you forget the cinnamon?
05:53 Well you know what I didn't. Okay what makes French apple cake so great is not
05:58 just what's in it it's what's not in it. And you'll understand when you taste
06:02 this but with basically just the natural goodness of the apples and that flavor
06:07 from the rum and a little bit of vanilla we end up with something that's
06:10 incredibly delicious and very unique and special because it doesn't have all that
06:15 other stuff in it. But having said that it's your cake so add what you want. But
06:20 anyway we'll transfer everything into our pan making sure we're pressing and
06:24 pushing that in very firmly so as not to leave any air pockets. And once we do
06:29 have that transferred in as evenly as possible and we smooth out that top as
06:33 best we can we will finish this off with a very traditional sprinkle of white
06:37 sugar which in most recipes is like a tablespoon but not in my recipe. Alright
06:43 I'm gonna sprinkle over at least three tablespoons since I want a nice flaky
06:47 crispy sugary crust. And that's it this is now ready to transfer into the center
06:52 of a 350 degree oven for about 45 minutes or until it looks like this. Oh
06:59 yeah that looks beautiful and done but we usually don't go by looks so we'll
07:05 test that with a skewer to make sure which should come out clean and mine did.
07:10 And then what we'll do is just let this sit and cool in the pan until it's just
07:15 warm at which point we can take our rack and lay it over the top and then
07:20 carefully flip everything over. And since we use that parchment that pan should
07:24 pull off nice and clean. And then to finish the dismount we'll place a plate
07:28 over the top and then carefully flip that back over. And thanks to my extra
07:33 sugary crispy top and the texture from my cooling rack as you can see I'm left
07:38 with some very interesting and I think extremely provocative marks which I did
07:43 not do on purpose but now that they look so cool I'm gonna say I did. But anyway I
07:49 went ahead and cleaned up the crumbs and then finished this by dusting over some
07:53 powdered sugar which I'm normally not a huge fan of but for me whatever
07:57 something looks like the first time I see it I always feel like that's how
08:01 it's supposed to look. And the first time and pretty much every time since I've
08:05 always seen this cake finished with a dusting of powdered sugar. So that's what
08:09 we're gonna do whether we like it or not. And you're probably wondering but
08:13 what about your provocative marks? Well you know what in hindsight they weren't
08:18 that cool. And that's it once garnished we can slice in and serve up. And then
08:23 even though this cake is perfect to eat as is I did finish by piping a little
08:27 bit of rum whipped cream over the top which is simply whipped cream with a
08:31 little bit of sugar and a splash of rum. And for a final touch I dusted on just a
08:36 tiny amount of cinnamon mostly for the contractually obligated pictures. And
08:40 after taking too many of those I grabbed a fork and dug in to what is as I said
08:45 in the intro my favorite French cake. And I have no way of knowing if you're gonna
08:50 think the same thing but I'm almost a hundred percent certain it will
08:54 definitely be your favorite apple cake since this my friends really is
08:58 incredible. And what I find so impressive besides the fantastic flavor and
09:04 gorgeous appearance is just how unbelievably light this is. I mean we put
09:09 a ton of apples in this which can cause a cake to be very dense but that did not
09:14 happen here. Right this really is featherlight. So if you were hoping for
09:19 something on the stodgy side you're gonna be very disappointed. And if you
09:24 don't do rum I guess you could use some extra vanilla. But for me flavor wise
09:28 that's what really makes this cake what it is. And again it's the absence of all
09:33 those traditional baking spices that makes this so unique. And I know I
09:38 sprinkled a little cinnamon on top but still when it comes to the ingredient
09:42 list yet again less is more. So as you've probably figured out by now I absolutely
09:49 love this cake which is why I really do hope you give it a try soon. So please
09:55 follow the links below for the ingredient amounts, a printable written
09:59 recipe and much more info as usual. And as always, enjoy!
10:07 you
10:09 you
10:12 you
10:14 you
10:16 you
10:19 you
10:21 you
10:23 [BLANK_AUDIO]