Preparation time: 1 hour
Cooking time: 1 hour, 20 minutes
Yield: 12 servings
This lovely cake starts with a homemade sage-honey applesauce that can be made ahead. Adapted from "Growing and Using Herbs in the Midwest," by Rosemary Divock.
Sage-honey applesauce:
3 large McIntosh apples, peeled, cored, coarsely chopped
¼ cup honey
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 sage leaf
Cake:
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon each: baking soda, baking powder
½ teaspoon each: cinnamon, salt
1 cup plus 3 tablespoons brown sugar
¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon minced fresh sage
1 large McIntosh, Winesap or other cooking apple, peeled, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1. For applesauce, combine apples, honey, lemon juice and sage in heavy saucepan; cook over low heat until apples have softened, about 30 minutes. Remove pan from heat; discard sage leaf. Puree apple mixture in food mill or food processor. Let sauce cool to room temperature. You should have about 1 cup.
2. Heat oven to 350 degrees. For cake, sift flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt together in medium bowl; set aside. Beat 1 cup of the brown sugar with ¾ cup of the butter in bowl of an electric mixer until fluffy; beat in eggs until smooth. Combine the cup of applesauce and the minced sage; add to brown sugar-egg mixture, beating well. Gradually beat in flour mixture until well combined.
3. Toss apple slices with lemon juice. Butter bottom and sides of a 9 ½-inch tube pan with remaining 2 tablespoons of the butter; sprinkle bottom and sides of pan with remaining 3 tablespoons of the brown sugar. Arrange apple slices overlapping on bottom of pan.
4. Carefully pour batter into pan. Bake until golden brown and cake tester comes out clean, about 50-60 minutes. Cool cake on wire rack 15 minutes. Loosen sides of pan; invert cake on wire rack.
Nutrition information per serving: 280 calories, 44 percent calories from fat, 14 g fat, 8 g saturated fat, 65 mg cholesterol, 260 mg sodium, 36 g carbohydrate, 3 g protein, 0.8 g fiber
© 2002, Chicago Tribune.
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
