Buckwheat, brown butter and apple cake

Yield: 1 27cm cake

Ingredients: 

400-500g chopped apples (peeled, cored and then diced into 2cm pieces, approximately 5-6 small apples)

165ml full  cream milk

1 egg

1 tsp. apple cider vinegar

150g butter

200g dark brown or dark muscovado sugar

2 tsp. vanilla essence

200g light buckwheat flour

100g almond meal

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

¼  tsp. ground clove

¼ tsp. ground allspice

1/8 tsp.  nutmeg

¼ tsp. fine sea salt

1.5 tsp. baking soda

Method:

Set your oven to 175 degrees Celsius with a rack in the center of the oven.  Butter a cake tin fully on the inside and then cut a piece of parchment to the size of the base and place that base in the bottom of the tin.   Set aside.

Brown your butter in a small but tall sided pot.   Be careful while doing this as the  butter will want to bubble and  rise over the  edges if you’re not stirring it towards the end.  Its done when its golden in color and the bubbles have turned to more of a foam on top of the liquid and its smells nutty and delicious. Set aside to cool.

Mix the sugar, milk, vanilla, vinegar and egg in a large bowl.  Using a whisk, add the cooled brown butter (all brown bits scraped into the bowl!) and continue mixing until combined.  In a separate bowl mix the remaining dry ingredients and spices using a whisk and then all at once pour the dry onto the wet and mix just enough to combine, a few small lumps are ok.  Add in your apples and mix with a spatula to combine.  The mixture will be thick so pour and spread this mixture into tin.  

Place into the oven and allow to bake until cake tester, used in the center, comes out clean.  If you’re using an oven with fan it will take less time.  Anywhere between 50-75 minutes.  The size of the tin you use could also alter this.  I’ve tested this using a 27cm tin and it took me about 70 minutes. If the top if the cake is getting dark and its still not baked, place a piece of foil over the top of the cake after about an hour of baking.

Notes: you can use swap plain or whole wheat or spelt flour for the buckwheat and you can swap non-dairy milk for the milk.