Brown Butter Apple Cake

• 3large eggs
• 220 gplain flour
• 1 tspground cinnamon
• 120 gGreek yoghurt
• 120 gcaster sugar
• 60 gsoft brown sugar
• 140 gunsalted butter (to brown)
• 2 tspbaking powder
• 1 tspvanilla extract
• 2 tbspdemerara sugar
• 3apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced
• 1 tbsplemon juice
• 1pinch fine salt
• Vanilla ice cream (optional)

Method

1. 1Heat the oven to 170°C fan (190°C conventional). Line the base and sides of a 23cm round cake tin with baking paper.
2. 2Brown the butter in a light-coloured pan over medium heat; you need to see the colour change. It will melt, foam, then quieten as the milk solids drop and turn deep golden, smelling properly nutty and toffee-like, about 4–6 minutes. Pull it off the heat the moment it hits amber, before it tips to bitter, and leave to cool until warm but no longer hot.
3. 3Whisk the caster and brown sugars with the eggs for 2–3 minutes until pale and thick enough to leave a ribbon trail. Whisk in the warm (not hot; hot scrambles the eggs) brown butter, vanilla and Greek yoghurt until smooth and glossy.
4. 4Sift in the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and a proper pinch of fine salt; the salt is what makes the brown butter taste of brown butter, not just sweet cake. Fold through gently and stop the moment the flour disappears; overworking now means a tough crumb later.
5. 5Toss the apple slices with the lemon juice; the acid keeps them bright and stops them browning while the batter waits, and it sharpens the sweetness against the buttery crumb. Taste a slice with a grain of demerara: it should taste like apple pie filling in miniature. If the apples are very sweet, add another small squeeze of lemon juice.
6. 6Spoon half the batter into the tin and level it, arrange a third of the apples in a single layer, then top with the remaining batter and fan the rest of the apples over the surface in overlapping rings.
7. 7Scatter the demerara generously over the apples and bake for 42–48 minutes, until the cake is deeply golden, the apples have softened but still hold their shape, and a skewer comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs. The edges should be pulling away from the tin slightly.
8. 8For a caramelised top, slide under a hot grill for 1–2 minutes until the sugar bubbles and turns amber; stay with it, it catches in seconds, not minutes.
9. 9Rest in the tin for 10 minutes, then ease onto a wire rack. Cut into ten wedges while still slightly warm and add the optional vanilla ice cream if using.

Per serving

kcal

323

protein

5.3g

fibre

1.8g

carbs

45.2g

fat

13.9g