I was asked by one of my followers on Instagram if I had any Irish recipes I could post in time for St. Patrick’s Day. I have made vegan soda bread before, which turns out really well, but I don’t think there is a way to go the extra step and make it gluten free. So I Googled Irish desserts, but as someone that doesn’t drink alcohol, there was not much that I would try. One recipe that did catch my eye was an apple cake with a custard sauce from this website.
Above: 1. Cutting in the butter 2. Pea sized bits after cutting in 3. Tossing apples in 4. Mixing in the liquids
When I look at traditional recipes, I can usually tell right away if it’s going to be feasible to make it vegan. Same thing with making a recipe gluten free. I immediately had a good feeling about this one. Dairy is always easy (just substitute your favorite milk and butter alternatives). Eggs can be a bit trickier. For cakes, coffee cakes and muffins, I typically prefer unsweetened apple sauce. Mild flavor and good binding properties. And it makes perfect sense in a recipe like this. On my first try making this, I found that the combination of applesauce and 4 apples was a bit too much. The cake was a little too moist (it was fully baked, yet still had a slightly wet appearance) and some of the apple chunks clustered together and baked into a weird apple goo. I thought it was just okay, but my wife liked it a lot. I should mention she’s 25% Irish and named Megan, so there might be some sort of genetic predisposition to liking this recipe. I decided to keep the apple sauce as my egg replacer but cut back on the apples a bit.
For the custard sauce, I wasn’t about to try to exactly replicate the custard sauce. At a restaurant I worked at a few years back, I made a coconut milk based sauce for a vegan bread pudding. The bread pudding was just okay, but the sauce was really good. So I tried to come up with something similar. Sweet, thick and creamy with a hint of vanilla. I used full fat coconut milk to give it richness, the same amounts of sugar and vanilla extract, and tapioca starch to thicken it. I tried it without the starch, but it was too thin. So I added some and made it too thick and gelatinous. Great taste, not the most appealing look or texture. So I found a nice amount in between. Thin enough to still flow, thick enough that it doesn’t immediately absorb into the cake.
Above: Coring and chopping an apple the easy way/you really don’t need an apple corer. 1. Peel your apple 2. With a large, sharp knife, make a cut straight down, just next to the core 3. If you cut a little too far in, pick out any seeds in your slice and trim off any hard bits of the core 4 & 5. Repeat going around the apple until 6. You are left with just a rectangular core. Chop your slices into desired size. I started off doing them about the size of the tip of my thumb, but later settled on square-ish chunks the size of the tip of my pinkie.
The one key technique I want to highlight on this recipe is cutting in the butter/margarine. I know that people sometimes don’t bother because they think it’s too hard to do or that it doesn’t make a difference. It absolutely does. You will get a better crumb if you do it. And you don’t need to get a pastry blender if you don’t already have one (although they make things easier). Just use the backside of a fork. Same effect, just slightly more work. When you’re cutting the fat in, if you’re not sure if the pieces are quite small enough or you should work it a little more, consider stopping and moving on to the next step. Better to leave it a little too rough than overworked.
My only other note would be that if you don’t want to make the full sized version, cut the recipe in half and do it in a 6″ pan. It will be slightly thicker, so it will take a little bit longer to bake all the way through, but it’s close enough that it won’t be ridiculous. 6″ cakes are my go to because I’m usually only baking something for a small number of people or because I’m trying out a recipe and don’t want to commit to using up a lot of ingredients on something I’m not sure about.
Gluten Free Irish Apple Cake with Coconut Sauce
Ingredients
Apple Cake
- 1-1/4 cups sorghum flour 168 grams
- 3/4 cup +2 tsp white rice flour 126 grams
- 1 cup +2 tsp tapioca starch 126 grams
- 3/4 tsp psyllium husk powder
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 3/4 cup margarine cold
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 3 apples, peeled and chopped
- 1/2 cup applesauce
- 3/4 cup non-dairy milk
- 2 tbsp sugar for sprinkling on top
Coconut Sauce
- 1-1/2 cups coconut milk
- 6 tbsp sugar
- 1-1/2 tsp tapioca starch
- 1-1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
To make the apple cake:
- Preheat oven to 375°. Spray 8 or 9″ springform pan with non-stick spray and set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together sorghum, white rice flour, tapioca starch, psyllium, baking powder, salt, cloves and nutmeg.
- Cut butter into small cubes, add to dry ingredients and cut in with a pastry blender or the back of a fork until pieces are pea sized. Add sugar and stir together.
- Add apples and toss until they are coated in flour.
- Whisk applesauce and milk together until combined. Add to dry ingredients and stir until no dry spots remain. Pour into greased pan. Smooth out surface. Sprinkle sugar on top.
- Bake for 40-45 minutes for an 8 or 9″ cake. Cake is done when top is slightly springy and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out dry. Let cool completely before removing from pan. To depan, carefully run a knife or straight icing spatula around the edge before opening the pan. Run knife or spatula under the cake before removing from base of pan. Serve warm or at room temperature with warm coconut sauce.
To make the coconut sauce:
- Bring coconut milk and sugar to a boil in a small pot, stirring occasionally. When it comes to a boil, add tapioca starch and whisk continuously for 2 minutes, until sauce is thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon. Remove from heat and whisk in vanilla.
