A Note Before You Start
This recipe first appeared in the NYTimes as Teddy's Apple Cake and Ellen has adapted and enhanced it in my opinion!!
Baking is Ellen's happy place. For as far back as she can remember, Ellen has been baking from scratch. First brownies & the infamous Nestle Tollhouse cookies. When she grew more confident, cakes and pies. In college, in the Fall, she would disappear into a basement kitchen with a bag of apples and reappear with Julia Child's upside-down Tarte Tatin. The tempo of coring, peeling and slicing apples required concentration which alleviated the anxiety of mid-terms and exams.
Ingredients
2 cups of all-purpose flour
1 cup of whole wheat flour (Ellen's ssubsitution /addition)
1&1/3 cups of vegetable oil (reduced from the original recipe)
1&1/2 cups of sugar (less than the original called for)
3 large eggs (room temprature)
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp of salt
1 tsp of cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
3 cups of cored, peeled and sliced apples
1&1/4cups of raisins (increase from the original)
Preparation
Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Either line a muffin tin with cup liners or spray with a cooking spray for easy release.
Step 2: Beat the oil and sugar together in a mixer with a paddle attachment for 5 minutes.
Step 3: While the oil and sugar are beating, whisk together the dry ingredients: both flours, salt, cinnamon, and baking soda and set aside.
Step 4: Add the eggs one at a time to the sugar and oil mixture and continue to beat until the mixture becomes creamy and yellowish-ish in color. Add the vanilla and beat for another 30 seconds.
Step 5: Add the dry ingredients to the sugar mixture and mix on low just to incorporate. Then add the apples and the raisins and mix in.
Step 6: With an ice cream scoop, fill the muffin tins 3/4 full. Bake for 22-25 minutes: until the tops are bronzed and an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Enjoy!!