Sour Cream Apple Souffle Cake Cockaigne
The title and subtitle are both a bit long – it’s not my fault. Roman numerals just do that and the recipe title is from The Joy of Cooking. Yes, it’s back, finally. No, I didn’t find it a box in the garage. The Laird saw it in a bookstore and decided he was sick of waiting. When he came home, he said that he had presents for his two favorite males. He gave the cat catnip. He gave me the cookbook. “So, I’m number three, I take it,” was my response.
A few days later, he wanted something with apples. I said, “look it up in the cookbook.”
Sour Cream Apple Souffle Cake Cockaigne
From: Mark
Source: The Joy of Cooking
Peel, core, and thinly slice (I didn’t remember I have a mandolin until halfway through slicing the first apple, but hey, it was the first one, not the fourth).
4 apples
Melt in a large heavy skillet:
4 Tbl butter
Add apples and cook over medium heat, stirring, often, until tender, about 5 minutes; do not let them brown. Reduce the heat to low. Combine in a medium bowl and pour over the apples:
8 large egg yolks, beaten
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup sour cream (used the leftover in the ‘fridge up before it went bad!!)
(1/2 cup sliced almonds) (I didn’t have any so I used 1 Tbl almond flour)
2 Tbl AP flour
1 lemon’s zest and juice
1/4 tsp salt
Stir until thickened. Transfer to large bowl to cool (sheet tray works better; more surface area).
Preheat oven to 325. Grease a 13×9 baking dish. (My 13×9 baking dish had a casserole in it so I used two 10-inch deep pie plates.)
Whip in a large bowl until stiff but not dry:
8 egg whites
Gently fold the beaten egg whites into the apple mixture. Spread in baking dish. Combine and sprinkle over the top:
2 Tbl dry bread crumbs (if you’re starting from bread, it’s not worth the effort – I did it, I know)
2 Tbl slivered almonds (still no almonds; used 1 Tbl almond flour)
2 Tbl sugar
1/2 Tbl ground cinnamon
Bake until the top is a deep golden brown and springs back when pressed, about 45 minutes. The cake may be served hot, but is best very cold, covered with:
Whipped Cream (which I also didn’t have)
That’s how The Joy of Cooking formatted the recipe. I really like it. I don’t normally care for as-you-go recipes because it’s difficult to be sure you have noticed all the ingredients. The bold-face font makes that simple. Very well done.
“Hey, Google! What does cockaigne mean?”
Cockaigne or Cockayne (/kɒˈkeɪn/) is a land of plenty in medieval myth, an imaginary place of luxury and ease, comfort and pleasure, opposite to the harshness of medieval peasant life.
I was right: The “g” is silent and the “e” is gratuitous. So is the “k”, now that I think about it. That’s not very helpful. Presumably a cake that would be found there? Just keep reading, O Impatient One.
The Joy of Cooking (first edition 1931) uses the word “Cockaigne” to indicate that the recipe was a favorite of the authors’ parents.
I still like Wikipedia – as long as you’re not looking for anything about history or politics.
Back to the “souffle cake”. This is how they came out:
They did not “souffle” very much. They did collapse a bit as they cooled, as you can see from one of them plated at the top. Those pans are not that deep; only about two inches.
It’s delicious! It’s very much like an apple custard pie without a crust. Hmm… And I bet the whole batch would fit in only one of those deep pans. Hmm…
That souffled a bit more:
No doubt it will collapse as it cools, as souffles do. Grating the apples instead of wide, heavy slices would probably help. I’ll post a plated picture before it runs off to crochet group, tomorrow.
Oh, and remember those little crocks that Nina made me buy? There was enough “too much” to (half) fill two of them. The Laird and I each ate one for, umm, 2200sies? That’s a thing, right? They also souffled nicely, then collapsed to little more than they started with.
I put a layer of the topping in the middle of the big one – with the slivered almonds. They didn’t do anything for me on the crocked one. The Laird liked the texture they added.
Update: Yep, it collapsed, all the way back to where it started.
I like the “remove the pan and let it sit free-form” feature of these pie pans/plates. It makes cutting it a bit messy as the sides fracture, but it’s one less dish to leave behind. I have lots of serving dishes. I don’t have lots of pie pans.
I have high hopes for this crust. I par baked with weights for 15 minutes (at 375), egg washed it, then par baked it for another 10 minutes (ish) until lightly browned. The 45 minutes with the filling in turned it that light, golden (magic word) brown. The bottom should not be soggy with the egg wash. We’ll see…
Marked Up 