If you want a recipe for apple yogurt cake, look no further! This is David Rocco's recipe and it's like a dense apple torte with a wonderful crispy sugar topping. Keep reading to find the recipe and my book review of David Rocco's book "Made in Italy" .
Oh, David Rocco.... I watch him on tv, usually in awe. He's a Canadian who lives part-time in Italy. He hangs out with his buddies in Rome, and cooks. He visits fun places like a chestnut farm, and eats and cooks among the trees. What a life! How do I sign up for this gig?
With all honesty, I don't really want to have a tv show. I'd rather have my perfect little bakery. In the meantime, I have David Rocco's latest book "Made in Italy" to review.
So far, I've tested a handful of recipes. What I love about this book: the simplicity. The recipes are quite simple and rustic. You don't need a fancy food processor, blender, mixer, etc. to make David Rocco's recipes. The photos in the book reflect this simplicity, depicting simple, traditional Italian dishes. There are no fancy plating techniques here: the pizzas aren't perfectly round and there are sometimes dribbles of sauce on the serving plate photographed. The dishes really look homemade.
What I don't love (i.e. me being picky): solids (like flour, sugar, etc.) are measured in cups/milliliters (mL). My inner chemist thinks that volumes are for liquids, weights are for solids. Unfortunately, I think Canadian publishing regulations dictate that solids be reported for cookbooks in cups/mL. This makes absolutely no sense to me, but those are the rules. Oh well.
My other issue is with the ingredient lists. For the dessert (dolci) section, I think it is important to specify to use unsalted butter and granulated sugar, for example. However, in this book, these ingredients are listed as butter and sugar, which is fine for the experienced bakers who know what type of butter and sugar to use, but for a novice, I think it's important to specify exactly what ingredients were used. These are really minor details though, and I'm definitely going to continue cooking with this book.
This apple yogurt cake is a dessert recipe adapted from David Rocco's "Made in Italy" (page 341). The recipe is really simple and can even be mixed together by hand (or with a hand mixer, as David Rocco recommends) if you don't have a stand mixer. The cake has a lovely moist texture and is full of apple slices. The original recipe said to bake the cake for 40 minutes, but mine took over an hour to bake. I love the crispy sugar topping that crackles as the cake cools and its crispy texture is a welcome sweet contrast to the soft, slightly tart apples. This is a great snacking cake and absolutely appropriate for the end of fall.
📖 Recipe
David Rocco's Apple Yogurt Cake
Ingredients
- 156 grams bleached all-purpose flour
- 1.25 mL ground cinnamon
- 1.25 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
- 100 grams granulated sugar
- 200 grams unsalted butter melted, plus a little extra for buttering the pan
- 2 large egg(s)
- 125 mL yogurt (2 % fat)
- 2 Cortland apple(s) peeled, cored, and thinly sliced
- 15 mL finely grated lemon zest
- 75 grams granulated sugar for the topping
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter an 8-inch cake round.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, and salt.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the ½ cup of sugar and the melted butter until it has lightened.
- Add the eggs, one at a time, beating between each addition and scraping down the bowl as needed.
- Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour mixture alternately with the yoghurt, beginning and ending with the flour.
- Stir in the sliced apples and the lemon zest, and pour the batter in the prepared pan.
- Sprinkle the ⅓ cup sugar evenly over the top of the cake.
- The original recipe suggests a baking time of 40 minutes, but I think it needs to bake for over one hour (until a tester inserted into the center (not through an apple if possible!) comes out clean.
- Let cool completely before serving.
Nutrition
Please note that I was sent this book by Harper Collins publishing, but my opinion is my own.
Anonymous says
Great cake!! Next time I'm going to add more apples (I used two small apples and it wasn't enough) and I may also add more sugar and less butter to increase the sweetness and decrease density. I may also try baking powder -- has anyone tried this yet?
Janice Lawandi says
Great suggestions! Baking powder would definitely give you a bit of extra "lift"! I liked the denseness of it, but that's just my personal preference. By all means, make it yours! And I'd love to hear how your tweaks turn out 🙂
Anonymous says
What an outstanding recipe. Love the long running comments as people find this lovely site ♥. I run a research lab so mL and grams are "natural" to me. Although you can't get 125 mL of yogurt out of a 250 mL graduated cylinder LOL. You can do weight/volume where 1 mL = 1 gram. That is what we do in the lab. You think that's crazy try and titer out to ng/ul (nanograms/microliter)with cytokines. Sheez
Anonymous says
Well I made the cake today and I did some things a little different. I only used one apple but it was a really big granny smith apple and then after I sprinkled the sugar on top I sprinkled a little more cinnamon on it too. I am a cinnamon freak. Its in there cooling down now and I can definitely tell you my husband is excited about tearing into it
Janice Lawandi says
That's amazing! I hope you both love it!
Anonymous says
A very simple recipe but a with a very good taste. I put only 150 Gr. butter in and the zest of a limon (green lemon), i love it !!! Thanks for the recipe.
Kelly @ IdealistMom.com says
Oh, this looks delicious! I love all kinds of apple desserts. I'm pinning it now 🙂
Rachel Weiler says
I made this the other night and absolutely loved it. It did take quite a while to get the butter and sugar light and fluffy by hand, so I think next time I won't melt the butter all the way...but it turned out great. Thanks for a delicious recipe!
Anonymous says
Made cake...too much butter. Must be a mistake. 14 tbs butter for this cake is unbelievable. what a waste of ingredients.
Janice Lawandi says
Hi, I'm sorry you had trouble with the cake. The problem might be that you didn't beat the butter and sugar mixture enough. If this step isn't done properly, you will end up with a heavy, greasy cake. I hope you will try this again.
Nadine says
Oh, this sounds soooo good, and I really love you for giving the measurments in grams!! This year I specially brought home a cup measure set from our vacation in the States because I love all the recipes but I cannot handle the cup thing 😉 I will try it for christmas! Thank you!
Nadine
bellwilde says
I did make this and cut the butter to 3/4 it turned out just like the picture and was soft, moist and tasty. I received many complements and will make this again. My friend made this as well and had a buttery mess and had to pour off butter after it was baked as I read above. We discussed our processes and the only real difference was I whipped the butter and sugar. o light and fluffy with an electric mixer she did it by hand.
Janice Lawandi says
Thanks so much for the input bellwilde! I agree with you: the whipping of the butter and sugar at the first step is very important!
I'm very happy to see that the cake was a hit 🙂
Anonymous says
This will complete our Thanksgiving meal this year, with the addition of a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream. Thanks so much for posting!
Janice Lawandi says
So happy to hear that! I hope you enjoy this cake and happy thanksgiving 🙂