The last time I had my mother's famous (in our family anyway) dessert, which she called "Jewish Coffee Cake," was well over twenty years ago since I don't remember having it after they moved down to Florida in 1995. But somehow, though her own recipe likely died with her more than a decade ago, I was able to resurrect the Holiday-time favorite by making it this weekend. I expected the first try to be "close but no cigar" since I was working from a base of present-day recipes found on the internet. But, as it turns out, I think I can exclaim triumphantly, on behalf of my happy taste buds and distinct memory: By Jove, I think I've got it!
Here's the recipe. Items in red are edits I made before completion. The original is found here.
INGREDIENTS
1 cup sugar
4 teaspoons cinnamon
6 cups peeled thinly sliced apples (about 3 large apples or 6 small apples)
3 cups flour, sifted
1 tablespoon baking powder
1⁄2 teaspoon salt
4 large eggs
1 1⁄2 cups sugar
1⁄2 cup light brown sugar
1 cup oil
1⁄2 cup orange juice
2 1⁄2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional) or 1 cup chopped pecans (optional)
The top two ingredients were intended, as the instructions below state, to be part of a glaze or "syrup" as the OP puts it to soak in the apple slices before insertion in layers into the cake. I instead blended these dry ingredients into the cake batter (streusel-style) just before adding ANOTHER cup of sugar (and some more brown sugar too), along with an unmeasured additional amount of cinnamon (about 6 teaspoons), as the topping sprinkled evenly on top of the cake batter.
I didn't bother with sifting. I have no idea what benefit that would do as my version came out quite fine without sifting, thank you very much.
I opted to adhere to my memory of my mother's original recipe which did not have nuts. I personally think nuts would taste fine in this cake but then it wouldn't be authentic.
DIRECTIONS
Mix apple slices with cinnamon and 1 cup sugar; set aside.
Combine dry ingredients in a medium bowl; set aside.
Beat eggs with 1 1/2 cups sugar and light brown sugar.
Alternately add the dry ingredients and the oil to the wet ingredients, then add the orange juice and lastly the vanilla and beat for 1 minute.
Pour 1/3rd of the batter into a greased and floured tube pan.
Layer 1/3rd of the apple slices and nuts over the batter.
Repeat with layer of batter, then apples and nuts, then batter, then final layer of apples and nuts.
Drizzle the cake with a bit of the remaining cinnamon-sugar "syrup" from the apple bowl.
Bake at 350 degrees for 1 1/4 hours or until tester comes out clean.
Allow cake to cool in pan on wire rack for 20-25 minutes, then turn cake out onto wire rack to cool completely.
As mentioned above, I didn't mix the sugar/cinnamon with the apples.
The original author assumes one would use either a bowl mixer or hand mixer. I have neither. Just a rinky-dinky little wire whisk and elbow grease. So I dispensed with this alternating style of blending ingredients in favor of the infinitely much easier "dump-everything-in-together" style.
I didn't do this layering. My mom did what I did, just added the apple slices to the mixed batter and mixed them in before pouring the whole thing into the greased and floured pan.
Again, no drizzling, I blended the dry sugar/cinnamon mix with a wooden spoon swirling it into the batter and apples. Then I coated it all with the additional sugars and cinnamon as a dry topping.
And here's a picture of the completed product.*
*Please note: I'm posting this before actually taking a picture of a piece of the cake. So, if there isn't actually a picture here where I indicate, that means I couldn't even hold back until I took the picture and ate all of it. Yes, it's that good. And yes, I'm that potentially gluttonous I'm afraid.
Here's the recipe. Items in red are edits I made before completion. The original is found here.
INGREDIENTS
1 cup sugar
4 teaspoons cinnamon
6 cups peeled thinly sliced apples (about 3 large apples or 6 small apples)
3 cups flour, sifted
1 tablespoon baking powder
1⁄2 teaspoon salt
4 large eggs
1 1⁄2 cups sugar
1⁄2 cup light brown sugar
1 cup oil
1⁄2 cup orange juice
2 1⁄2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional) or 1 cup chopped pecans (optional)
The top two ingredients were intended, as the instructions below state, to be part of a glaze or "syrup" as the OP puts it to soak in the apple slices before insertion in layers into the cake. I instead blended these dry ingredients into the cake batter (streusel-style) just before adding ANOTHER cup of sugar (and some more brown sugar too), along with an unmeasured additional amount of cinnamon (about 6 teaspoons), as the topping sprinkled evenly on top of the cake batter.
I didn't bother with sifting. I have no idea what benefit that would do as my version came out quite fine without sifting, thank you very much.
I opted to adhere to my memory of my mother's original recipe which did not have nuts. I personally think nuts would taste fine in this cake but then it wouldn't be authentic.
DIRECTIONS
Mix apple slices with cinnamon and 1 cup sugar; set aside.
Combine dry ingredients in a medium bowl; set aside.
Beat eggs with 1 1/2 cups sugar and light brown sugar.
Alternately add the dry ingredients and the oil to the wet ingredients, then add the orange juice and lastly the vanilla and beat for 1 minute.
Pour 1/3rd of the batter into a greased and floured tube pan.
Layer 1/3rd of the apple slices and nuts over the batter.
Repeat with layer of batter, then apples and nuts, then batter, then final layer of apples and nuts.
Drizzle the cake with a bit of the remaining cinnamon-sugar "syrup" from the apple bowl.
Bake at 350 degrees for 1 1/4 hours or until tester comes out clean.
Allow cake to cool in pan on wire rack for 20-25 minutes, then turn cake out onto wire rack to cool completely.
As mentioned above, I didn't mix the sugar/cinnamon with the apples.
The original author assumes one would use either a bowl mixer or hand mixer. I have neither. Just a rinky-dinky little wire whisk and elbow grease. So I dispensed with this alternating style of blending ingredients in favor of the infinitely much easier "dump-everything-in-together" style.
I didn't do this layering. My mom did what I did, just added the apple slices to the mixed batter and mixed them in before pouring the whole thing into the greased and floured pan.
Again, no drizzling, I blended the dry sugar/cinnamon mix with a wooden spoon swirling it into the batter and apples. Then I coated it all with the additional sugars and cinnamon as a dry topping.
*Please note: I'm posting this before actually taking a picture of a piece of the cake. So, if there isn't actually a picture here where I indicate, that means I couldn't even hold back until I took the picture and ate all of it. Yes, it's that good. And yes, I'm that potentially gluttonous I'm afraid.