Irish Apple Scone Cake

I first saw this recipe on Joy of Baking last summer and bookmarked it as a nice St. Patrick’s Day breakfast item.  The original recipe is here.  The only changes I made were to use thinly sliced apples and to omit an egg used to brush the top of the cake.  Please note that this is a quick bread, not a cake.  It is best when served warm from the oven.  Leftovers can be reheated in the oven.

APPLE SCONE CAKE

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/2 cup cold butter, cut into small cubes
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 tsp. vanilla

Filling:

• 1 lb. Granny Smith apples (about 3-1/2 cups of peeled, thinly sliced apples
• 3 Tblsp. granulated sugar
• 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon

Topping:

• Granulated sugar for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

Butter a 9″ pie pan

From the 1/2 cup of milk, remove 1 Tblsp. for brushing cake.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.  Blend the butter into the flour mixture until mixture looks like coarse crumbs.

In a separate small bowl, whisk together the egg, the remaining milk and the vanilla.  Add to the flour mixture, stirring with a fork just until the dough comes together.  Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and knead gently four or five times and then divide dough in half.  Pat one half of the dough onto the bottom and up the sides of the pie pan.

In a separate bowl, toss together the apple slices, sugar and cinnamon.  Spread the apples evenly over the bottom  of the dough in the pie pan.

Roll the remaining dough into a 9″ circle on a lightly floured surface and gently place the dough over the apples.  Seal the edges of the top and bottom crusts with your fingers.

Brush the top of the dough with the reserved 1 Tblsp. of milk and sprinkle with granulated sugar.  Cut a slit in the center of the dough to allow the steam to escape.

 

Bake in a preheated 350 degree F oven for 45 minutes until pastry is nicely browned and a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

Place the cake, still in the pan, on a wire rack to cool slightly.  Serve warm – clotted cream would be nice with this.

When my daughter and I were in Ireland in 1995, we visited a Folk Farm where two ladies were demonstrating making a huge apple dish and now I wonder if it might have been a large version of the Apple Scone Cake.

St. Patrick’s Day Decorations

With the help of my daughter, I have a good display of St. Patrick’s Day/Irish items.  She is good at so many things like decorative painting……

She painted a wooden plate with a scene inspired by a photograph taken when we were in Ireland and she added our favorite border collie.

I smile to myself every time I see the plate and remember the farmhouse and those wonderful dogs herding the sheep.

She is also skilled at collages and made this one up using some unusual items.  There is some very nice fine hand quilting on this piece.

I have a quilted wall hanging that I made, also remembering our trip to Ireland.  At a country farmhouse, women were making a huge apple tart.  In this case, I scanned a photograph and printed it on fabric.  The block is Wonderful World from Judy Martin’s Stars & Sets CD.

Many years ago, when my daughter and I had a booth at a craft mall, I designed a scene with an Irish piper, dancers and a small brown dog.  I used the design many times on decorative painting items and tried my hand at using the design in a fusible applique picture. 

Happy St. Patrick’s Day