This apple tray bake is a recipe my husband loves. It reminds him of his childhood. This is the basic recipe of the tray bake. From here, lots of spices can be added, like cinnamon or nutmeg. It can be served with vanilla sauce. I made this tray bake with Bramley Apples.
These apple are an old variety, from the early 1800s, in Nottinghamshire, grown by a young girl. A butcher called Bramley bought the cottage the girl had with those trees after 40 years. In 1900 a storm blew down the original Bramley tree. Amazingly it survived and it’s still producing apples today, after more than 200 years. During WWI a lot of Bramley trees were planted and it was more and more popular. Bramley are best for cooking. While too sharp raw, when cooked, they are truly delicious.
The recipe is very interesting to make. There isn’t batter, but the dry ingredients are put in the tray as they are. Do have a try of making it, it’s a fun thing to do and it’s different. I used 2 big Bramley apples, that are around 650g together. If you have smaller apples, use 3. The recipe is vegan and fat-free.
Apple tray bake. Ingredients for 8 servings (2 pieces each):
– 140g white plain flour
– 170g semolina
– 170g sugar
– 1 heaped tsp of baking powder
– 2 big Bramley apples
– 250ml water
– icing sugar to decor
Mix the white flour, semolina, sugar and the baking powder. Wash and grate the apples. Pre heat the oven at 180C or 160C fan.
Line the tray with grease proof baking paper. Put a third of the dry ingredients mix in the tray. On top, tip half of the grated apples. Add a new layer of the dry ingredients in the tray on top of the apples. Place the remaining apples on top of the cake. Tip the remaining dry ingredients on top of the apples.
Using a spoon, scoop the water on the cake with care, so the dry ingredients and apples get soaked.
Bake the cake for 1 h. Have a look before that, to make sure the cake will not get over-baked. Take it out of the oven when it’s ready and the top is cracked. Cut the cake into 16 pieces and sprinkle icing sugar on top.
Do you like apple tray bake? What do you think of this recipe?
A fat free cake sounds great! I will give it a try soon, we have a thing about apple cakes here. 🙂
A very different and fascinating way to make apple tray cake…cool that it doesn’t even use any fat here.