Recipe: Hi-Country Apple Crumb Cake

Hi-Country Apple Crumb Cake
with "Wild Turkey" Caramel Sauce

12 servings

Awesome! Frankly, everything Chef Clement submitted to this book is spectacular, so I'm not surprised his dessert is prodigious. The cake is super-moist, filled with chunky pink-tinged apples and sauced with buttery, liquor-infused caramel. This dessert won kudos from Pam Raby, the assistant director at my health-club, not because it's healthful, but because it's not!—It just tastes great. Of course, she can afford to eat all she wants. She's not got an ounce of body fat on her. Have some more cake, Pam.

2 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 pounds Rome apples
(about 3 to 5 apples), cored
and chopped but unpeeled
1-1/2 tablespoons lemon juice

Topping:
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup flour
1 tablespoon cinnamon (optional)

Beat sugar, oil and eggs together for 2 minutes. In a separate bowl, mix flour, baking soda and salt together. Add flour mixture, apples and lemon juice to sugar mixture (batter will be very stiff). Pour into a greased 9 by 13 inch baking dish.

Mix topping ingredients together until it resembles coarse meal. Sprinkle evenly over top of cake batter. Bake 40 to 55 minutes, or until golden brown on top and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Serve with "Wild Turkey Caramel Sauce".

"Wild Turkey" Caramel Sauce

Yield = 1-1/2 cups

1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons water
1 cup heavy cream, slightly warmed
1/4 cup butter (1/2 stick)
2 tablespoons Wild Turkey or other bourbon

Cook sugar and water over medium high heat. (It's okay if the sugar crystallizes. Continue cooking and eventually it will re-melt and turn golden brown). When sugar turns golden brown, lower heat and slowly and carefully add cream, stirring constantly. Watch out for a violent reaction between the hot sugar and the cream. Continue cooking to dissolve any sugar that seized up during the cream addition. Add the bourbon and remove from heat. Drizzle over Hi-Country Apple Crumb Cake and garnish with a slice of fresh apple.

Buy the Book!

The Great Ranch Cookbook
By Gwen Ashley Walters
Guest Ranch Link, LLC
Hardback, $19.95
ISBN: 0-9663486-0-5
Recipe Reprinted by permission.