By conserving farmland, TLC is ensuring land right here in the Triangle will be available for farming forever, providing fresh local food for generations to come. In that spirit, every month we are offering you a new, tasty dish featuring local food, that is a favorite of a staff member or friend of TLC.
This month’s recipe comes to us from our new Development Operations Manager, Paula Mazzanti. She is offering up her Latvian Apple Cake.
Paula says…”I had been looking for about eight years for a pie/cake recipe, that my mother-in-law said her mother made all the time, but had never passed on the recipe. Her mother was Latvian, and I wanted my daughters to have some of the food/cultural heritage from both sides of their family. I tried about eight different pie recipes over eight years of searching and she said ‘not quite’ to all of them. Finally, I saw this one in a magazine article. When I made it for her, her eyes lit up, and she said, ‘Yes, that’s it’. We have made this recipe for the 20 years since I found it!”
“This is barely a cake at all; it’s more like an instant apple pie!,” adds Paula, “Batter poured over apples in a pie dish and baked until crusty and golden.” Mmmm…sounds good! Enjoy!
Latvian Apple Cake
3 large tart (about 1 ½ pounds) apples peeled, cored and cut into wedges
1 ½ sticks butter, cut into pieces
1 tsp lemon juice
1 cup flour
¾ cup + two tablespoons sugar
2 tsps cinnamon
2 eggs, lightly beaten
Brown sugar, optional
Preheat oven to 350. Generously butter a 9 ½ or 10 inch glass pie dish.
Peel core cut apples, toss with lemon juice and mix with 2 tablespoons of sugar and 2 tsp cinnamon. Place apples in pie plate. Cook the butter on medium heat until golden. This takes a while and a watchful eye. Pour butter into a bowl leaving the bits behind in the pan. Stir ¾ cup sugar into the butter. Gently stir in the eggs and then the flour just until blended. Spread the batter evenly over the apples. Sprinkle the top with 2 teaspoons sugar. Bake for 50 minutes until the surface is gold and crusty. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Serve in wedges at room temperature.
There are variations you can do with this recipe; sometimes we add ½ brown sugar ½ white sugars or more cinnamon.
