Recipe of the week: Quick apple desserts: Then and now

Back when most people cooked every day, cake recipes were plentiful, said Amanda Hesser in The New York Times. “Cake was something you whipped up every couple of days.” A typical standby of those days was Teddie’s Apple Cake. All the ingredients were easy to find, an icing was not required, and the cake was not designed to keep for more than a few days. I showed the recipe, which originally appeared in this paper in 1973, to Boris Portnoy, pastry chef at Campton Place in San Francisco. He was frustrated by its simplicity, but used the flavors and ideas behind Teddie’s to create his own multidimensional soufflé-crepe with sautéed apples. With a custard-like bottom, this crepe, like Teddie’s, is a “one-pan wonder” that can be made in a hurry. Unlike Teddie’s, it will last only about as long as “it takes to carry it to the table.”

Then: Teddie’s Apple Cake

Butter for greasing pan

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3 cups flour, plus more for dusting pan

1/2 cups vegetable oil

2 cups sugar

3 eggs

1 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp vanilla

3 cups peeled, cored, and thickly sliced tart apples, like Honeycrisp or Granny Smith

1 cup chopped walnuts

1 cup raisins

Vanilla ice cream (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour 9-inch tube pan. Beat oil and sugar together in mixer (fitted with paddle attachment) while assembling remaining ingredients. After 5 minutes, add eggs, beat until mixture is creamy. Sift together 3 cups of flour, salt, cinnamon, and baking soda. Stir into batter. Add vanilla, apples, walnuts, and raisins, and stir until combined. Transfer mixture to prepared pan. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan before turning out. Serve at room temperature with vanilla ice cream, if desired. Serves 8.

Now: Spiced Soufflé Crepe with Sautéed Apples

Portnoy used Granny Smith apples, but you could use any tart apple.

5 tbsp unsalted butter

6 sprigs thyme

4 tart apples, peeled, cored, and quartered

3/4 cup, plus 2 tbsp, sugar

5 tbsp melted butter

7 eggs, separated

1 vanilla bean, halved lengthwise, seeds scraped out, pod and seeds reserved

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp allspice

1/2 cup, plus 1 tbsp, cake flour

Salt

2 cups whole milk, at room temperature

Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting

Vanilla ice cream or crème fraîche (optional)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In 12-inch iron skillet, melt 2 tbsp of butter with thyme sprigs over medium-high heat. Add apples, brown on all sides until just tender when pierced with a fork, 10 to 15 minutes. Sprinkle with 2 tbsp of sugar and cook, gently stirring, until sugar dissolves and apples caramelize, about 1 to 2 minutes more. Remove thyme, set apples aside. Wipe skillet clean. In large bowl, whisk together vanilla pod and seeds with melted butter, egg yolks, 1/2 cup sugar, cinnamon, allspice, cake

flour, and a pinch of salt. Whisk in milk until combined.

Whisk egg whites with a pinch of salt, gradually adding remaining 1/4 cup sugar. Whip to soft peaks, fold into batter. Melt remaining 3 tbsp butter in clean skillet over medium-high heat, swirling butter up sides of pan. When butter is foamy, spread sautéed apples in pan, pour in batter. Transfer to oven, bake uncovered until center of crepe no longer wobbles when shaken,

20 to 25 minutes. Sift confectioners’ sugar on top, and if you like, serve with vanilla ice cream or crème fraîche. Serves 8 to 10.