I would still plant my apple tree. ...

Honey and Oats Cake with Apple Butter

My mother never relished cooking. But, each Fall, when the air turned crisp and scented with apples, the recipe books came out in anticipation of Rosh Hashanah. With the Jewish New Year coinciding with September, the spirit of a fresh start animated the house. There were matzoh balls from boxed mixes- ‘her secret recipe’- that she methodically shaped and simmered to effect ethereal lightness. And a brisket concocted with onions, tomato paste, and brown sugar for an old world sweet and sour tam simmered until the tender slabs nearly fell apart.

For school lunches, she’d  make sandwiches of cream cheese and apple butter to stuff in our Scooby Doo lunchboxes. I loved its spreadable-ness and depth of apple-y flavor - a hedonistic smear of creamy and sweet happily devoured each noon in the cafeteria. Apple butter was the signal that summer had become Fall. No pumpkin spice lattes or pumpkin bread or maple pumpkin chais to speed us through September and October. We had lots of time. We savored this stuff, darker and thicker than applesauce, but slow-simmered longer so the natural sugars can caramelize and the apple pectin gels.

I make it today without adding sugar by simply taking advantage of the natural sugars in apple cider. I serve it with sharp cheddar, or mix it into yogurt, or oatmeal, or eat it with labne on a bagel. And as we look forward to the promise of a New Year, a year when we can imagine our stronger, better selves, my apple butter adds just the right counter notes of caramel, brown butter to the moist crumb of a simple lower sugar honey and oats cake. “Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree,” said Martin Luther. May you of all faiths and backgrounds have a year filled with sweetness ahead!

Dollops of Apple Butter Set into Batter Add Sweetness

 Honey and Oats Cake with Apple Butter

This recipe relies on the natural sugars in fruit to reduce the usual sugar and cuts the butter. I was never one for the sickly sweet, dense honey cake my grandmother made still typical in New York bakeries. Instead, I used honey and a bit of brown sugar with a base of cooked oatmeal for fiber (a good way to use up leftovers) for this lovely cake. The apple butter adds a nice motif to the top or can be served along side. The cake is moist and keeps for days in the fridge.

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1/4 cups light brown sugar

1/4 cup honey

2 whole eggs

2 cups cooked oatmeal

1/2 cup + 2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/2 cup + 2 Tablespoons whole wheat flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda (for lighter crumb, use 2 1/2 teaspoons if you have no sodium limitation)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon allspice

Preheat the oven to 350 F

Sift together the all-purpose and whole wheat flours, baking soda, baking powder, allspice, and cinnamon. In a medium bowl, cream the butter and sugar together. Beat the eggs lightly and stir into the butter mixture. Add the cooked oatmeal and honey and stir to combine. Add the sifted flours, baking soda, baking powder, allspice, and cinnamon to the oatmeal mixture and combine well.

Pour the mixture into greased and floured 9 inch springform cake tin.

Using a Tablespoon or large serving spoon, drop dollops of apple butter onto the batter surface from the center while moving your hand radially outward.  The shape should simulate leaves, thicker at the center like a flower petal and narrowing or fish-tailing toward the perimeter. The reverse motion, narrower in the center, will result in a more flower-like motif.

Bake for 40 minutes until a clean utensil inserted in the center can be removed clean. 

Craveable Apple Butter No-Added Sugar

2 pounds harvest apples, peeled, cored, and chopped - about 6 apples

1 1/2 cups apple cider

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Peel, core and coarse chop the apples into 1-2 inch cubes.  In a medium-sized saucepan, combine the apples and apple cider. Bring cider to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer on low 20 minutes. 

Use a potato masher or stick blender to puree the cider mixture until no chunks remain. Add the ground cinnamon and nutmeg. Stir or use the immersion blender to combine.  Bring the heat back to a low boil then reduce heat to and simmer on low, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the mixture is thickened brown, 30-40 minutes, checking frequently as it reduces. The butter will become a deep sienna brown of spreadable consistency. It should hold its shape, coating the back of a spoon when done and thicken further from the apple pectin gel as it cools. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for one week.