One of my favorite things about Fall is apples…and trips to the apple orchard. This year, without a trip to one of my favorite apple orchards in the Twin Cities area marked on the calendar, I was beginning to think it would be the first time in many, many years that I didn’t get to an apple orchard. The sign along Highway 10 that made me turn my car down a winding country road in search of my favorite fall fruit, turned into a wild goose chase. But then, an angel appeared and offered me all the apples I could possibly want or need.
With the big bag of apples I brought home, I made an apple tapioca sauce with a handful of the fruit. I could have moved on to the apple crisp that has been a family-favorite for years. But, I decided to pull a church cookbook off my shelf. I have a bunch of them that I’ve collected over the years. I randomly pulled a book from the tightly-packed row lined up on the shelf. I paged through the one that wound up in my hands: The Centennial Cookbook (1887-1987) from St. Olaf Lutheran Church in Devils Lake, North Dakota. I stopped at Swiss Apple Pie Cake that was submitted by Berdelle Nelson.
I added a little salt to the cake batter and rather than dissolve the baking soda in hot water as Ms. Nelson directs, I used buttermilk, but otherwise followed Berdelle’s recipe. I happened to have buttermilk in my refrigerator. Don’t go out to buy buttermilk just for the 2 teaspoons. Just use the hot water. She included a recipe for Rum Butter Sauce to serve with the cake. I decided to infuse the buttery caramel-like sauce with some fresh herbs from my garden and skipped the rum. I also added a teaspoon of honey. The slight hint of piney rosemary and aromatic thyme in the creamy, buttery caramel sauce is so perfect with the tender apples in the cake.
I’m adding this recipe to my file of apple recipes that must be made each year. It is amazing. I’m so glad Berdelle Nelson took the time to submit the recipe to her church cookbook committee so many years ago.
Swiss Apple Pie Cake with Rosemary-Thyme Butter Sauce
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons buttermilk
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups chopped, peeled apples
1 cup broken, toasted pecans
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter the inside of a 9-inch glass pie dish and set aside. Break egg into a mixing bowl. Add sugar and beat with a whisk until well blended and light. Add melted butter and whisk the mixture to blend. Dissolve baking soda in buttermilk in a small bowl. Add to mixing bowl and whisk in. Sift flour, spices and salt into mixing bowl and stir mixture until dry ingredients almost disappear. Add apples and nuts and gently stir them into the batter. Spread batter into prepared dish. Bake in preheated 350-degree oven 35 to 45 minutes, until a wooden pick inserted into center of cake comes out clean. Remove from oven and allow to cool. While cake is baking, begin making Butter Sauce.
Rosemary-Thyme Butter Sauce
1/2 cup whipping cream
1 sprig fresh rosemary, about 5 or 6 inches long
1 sprig fresh thyme, about 5 or 6 inches long
1/2 cup butter
1 teaspoon honey
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
While the Pie Cake is baking, measure whipping cream into a saucepan. Add sprigs of fresh rosemary and thyme, stems and leaves. Bring mixture to a boil. Remove from heat and set aside. Allow herbs to infuse whipping cream with their flavor while cake is baking, or for at least 30 minutes. When you are ready to proceed with preparation of sauce, pour cream through a strainer to remove herbs. Use the back of a spoon to press herbs in strainer. Add butter, honey, sugar and brown sugar to sauce pan along with the strained whipping cream. Bring mixture to a boil, stirring as it heats. Boil vigorously for 3 minutes. Remove from heat. Serve sauce warm with Swiss Apple Pie Cake.
Store remaining sauce in a covered jar in the refrigerator. Heat before serving.
Sue Doeden is a popular cooking instructor, food writer and integrative nutrition health coach. She is the host of Good Food, Good Life 365 on Lakeland Public Television. Her own hives full of hardworking bees and her love of honey led to the creation of her recently published cookbook, Homemade with Honey.