Gâteau Invisible (Invisible Apple Cake) Recipe

[Photographs: Tim Chin, unless otherwise noted]

Go away it to the French to invent a cake that evokes a way of thriller. Gâteau invisible aux pommes, or “invisible apple cake,” options dozens of intersecting layers of thinly sliced apples sure in a candy, custardy batter. Why invisible? When baked, the apples appear to vanish into the cake, and turn out to be texturally indistinguishable from the custard, forming a cohesive, sliceable dessert that’s decidedly extra fruit than cake. (Apple a day? How about an entire cake’s value of apples.) It’s typically served with nuts and a caramel sauce. Suppose candy apple gratin, however only a hair fancier.

Regardless of its French origins, gâteau invisible has discovered explicit recognition in Japan. As a nod to that cultural-geographic pairing, I needed to include miso into this model of the dessert. Whereas miso is thought for being an ultra-salty, umami-packed condiment primarily utilized in savory dishes, it may also be a beneficial element in candy dishes. As bakers, we’re taught to make use of salt to reinforce the flavour of baked items: Only a small pinch of salt brings complexity, reduces our notion of bitter flavors, and balances desserts that may in any other case be excessively candy. Miso has these qualities in spades. When used judiciously, it lends nutty, caramel-like flavors that meld seamlessly with cold-weather flavors like butterscotch, pumpkin, and, after all, apple.

This cake begins with a unfastened batter of eggs and flour, together with a beneficiant serving to of white miso. Thinly sliced apples are folded into the batter, then loaded right into a pan and baked. I examined totally different baking vessels, from giant springform pans to sq. aluminum brownie pans, however discovered {that a} easy one-pound aluminum loaf pan produced probably the most spectacular, uniform slices. As for meeting, I attempted a number of strategies starting from merely dumping all the pieces into the pan to meticulously arranging the apples in a seamless sample. Ultimately, I discovered it essential to rearrange the apple slices such that their flat sides are flush with the sides of the pan, whereas filling the areas between with a extra random overlapping sample. This technique produced a cake with clear, straight sides and fewer irregularities.

Gâteau invisible is commonly served with a caramel sauce. For an off-beat riff on salted caramel, I whisk white miso right into a scaled down variation of Stella’s Easy Caramel Sauce. Along with its salt content material, miso contributes nutty, fruity, and savory notes that give the caramel extra depth of taste. That one-two punch of miso each within the cake and the sauce yields a deeply satisfying dessert that’s nice served at any temperature, any time of day.