Some blogs post beautiful photographs of carefully staged food, if you have read anything on this blog, you know this is not one of them.
My sister sent me a text message asking for the recipe of a childhood favorite, Apple Chocolate Chip Cake. It doesn’t sound like much, the name, though descriptive, doesn’t sounds appealing. It is delicious and simple, two of my favorite things.
I sent her a quick photo of the recipe. A recipe scrawled on a post-it-note and stuck inside the cover of a “vintage” The New York Time International Cookbook. I have never actually cooked one of these international dishes but I have moved this book to at least 14 different residences over the past 20-ish years so I feel like this book is essential to my household.
I have made this recipe so many times I don’t read it except to verify the age old question, “am I using baking powder or baking soda?” My sister, “lol”ed at my directions. And the patina of my cover.
The big joke here is that I am what you might call a “one bowl baker,” which is code for a lazy and terrible baker. My love of minimalism and efficiency is greater than my need to be a perfect baker so I mix my “wet” ingredients and then add scoops of my dry ingredients, in the same bowl! With the exception of a meringue or a souffle, which I clearly have no business making, I stick to my one-bowl rule.
The writing on the upper right is my mother’s, though I have no recollection of her adding her helpful hints. I never dust pans and certainly wouldn’t dust them with breadcrumbs. My life is too short for dry-cleaning, owning shirts that aren’t wrinkle free and dusting cake pans.
I get angry when I am scrolling through War and Peace to find the directions to a recipe, clearly a simple, “add” and “mix” is sufficient to make a cake.
As a minimalist, I try not to attach too much sentiment to material things. I take a lot of photographs, try to create as many fun memories as I can but I don’t have a lot of “mementos.” My kids won’t inherit much from me other than my love of karaoke and combination oily/dry skin.
This is my heirloom, I rewrote this recipe at one point from an even older post-it note than had lost its stick and been taped several times. Behold my children, someday, this will be yours.
Growing up, I called this recipe, Auntie Hazel’s Apple Cake. Hazel was a classic Yankee farmer who owned a large apple orchard in Rhode Island. I never had a relationship with any relatives outside of my parents so this was as close as I get to family recipes.
Since the recipe involved apples, it all made sense to my young mind. I proudly told everyone who came into contact with this delicious recipe that it was “Auntie Hazel’s Apple Chocolate Chip Cake.” Only it wasn’t her recipe. My mother casually mentioned it came from a magazine and had nothing to do with the apple orchard of my youth.
This will have to suffice as an heirloom recipe for my children.
On the other side of their family, my husband has this book, filled with classic Italian cookie recipes from his mother. Did I mention his family had been bakers in Italy?
Though I am not a good baker, I substitute ingredients early and often, I know how to pick and stick with a winner. Much like marriage, you may have to modify a bit but ultimately, there is no substitute for comfort.
I have made this recipe more times than I can count, I am posting the “classic” version as well as my “modified” version.
Classic Apple Chocolate Chip Cake
- Cream 1 cup of sugar, 3/4 cup oil in a bowl. Add 2 eggs and beat until fluffy. Add 2 tsp of vanilla extract and mix.
- In a separate large bowl, sift together (ha ha) 2 cups flour, dash salt and 1 tsp of baking soda.
- With the precision of the bomb squad, carefully add the wet ingredients to the dry (or the other way around I can’t remember) Mix until blended
- Add 3-4 apples, peeled and slices and 1 cup of chocolate chips, mix.
- Grease a bundt pan, pour in batter, scoop it, etc.
- Bake at 350 for almost an hour. It will get fairly dark, you don’t want it undercooked.
Modified Apple Chocolate Chip Cake
- Get your favorite bowl, cream 1/2 cup sugar with olive oil and whole plain yogurt, I add equal amounts to create 3/4 cup total
- Add 2 eggs, mix until fluffy, add 1tsp vanilla extract and a whisp of cinnamon
- throw in your dash of salt, add 1 tsp of baking soda, mix a tad
- Add 1 cup almond flour, mix a bit
- Add 1 cup of gluten-laden white flour, mix until blended
- Mix in the apples (3-4 sliced and peeled) and 1 cup chocolate chip
- Grease your bundt pan, add batter, bake at 350 for around an hour
- Do not underbake, the apples release moisture.
