Apple Rhubarb Pistachio Cake
Feed Yourself, No 12
The perpetual need to feed and be fed is relentless! Feed Yourself is here to ease the burden and help you find the sacred in sustenance.
Winter storage apples are still plentiful at the farmer’s market, but if you’re lucky, you’ll start to see some rhubarb popping up. This cake is perfect for the shoulder season that we’re in on the East Coast. Not yet total spring bloom, the sun withholding, berries still a distant wish. It comes together in one bowl, and bakes in under an hour. It’s easy, elegant, and gentle. The addition of whip cream, yogurt, or ice cream has never hurt anyone.1
Apple Rhubarb Pistachio Cake
Ingredients
C = cup
T = tablespoon
t = teaspoon
115g, (1/2 C), butter, room temperature 2
200g, (1 C) sugar + a little more for sprinkling
3 eggs, room temperature
240g, (1 C), whole milk
120g, (1 C) all-purpose flour
90g, (3/4 C) whole wheat flour
5g, (1 t) baking powder
6g, (1 t) salt
2 apples, peeled, cored and sliced
4 stalks rhubarb, 2 sliced width wise and 2 sliced length wise
1 lemon, zested and juiced
60g (1/2 C) chopped pistachios or whole pine nuts
Line a ten inch baking round with parchment paper or coat it in butter and dust with flour. Preheat oven to 350°F.
Zest your lemon and set aside. Slice apples and rhubarb (the 2 width wise!) and set aside in a bowl, squeeze over lemon juice and toss. Slice the other 2 rhubarb stalks length wise and set aside to use later.
In a bowl with a hand mixer or stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar together until lighter in color and fluffy, around three minutes. Add in the eggs, incorporating them one by one. Pour in the milk and combine.
Add in flours gradually and mix until just combined. If you think your flour is clumpy, sift it prior to adding with a strainer or sieve over a bowl. Add baking power. Mix to combine.
Fold in the apple, rhubarb and lemon mixture. Scoop batter into prepared baking tin. Use the long cut rhubarb like you would to make a lattice top for a pie. Five rows of rhubarb across by five rows of rhubarb top to bottom. (I only had enough for five across pictured above if you’re a close reader!) Sprinkle nuts on top. Finish with a dusting of Demerara sugar, cane sugar or whatever sugar you’ve got!
Bake for 45-60 minutes or so, until cooked all the way through. If unsure you can always take the internal temp, which should read around 200°F. Let cool.
This batter takes well to almost any fruit and nut combo.Throw in blueberries, plums, apricots, hazelnuts, almonds, pecans; she can handle it!
That is unless you’re lactose intolerant. If so, substitutes abound! I recommend Cocojune yogurt.
If you prefer to bake dairy free and gluten free, you can substitute the butter for olive oil and the flour for a mixture of almond flour and 1:1 baking flour. You’ll get a bit of a denser cake, more like a financier but still yum!
drooling