Homestyle Sunken Apple Traybake
Elevenses and Afternoon Tea: The Baking Tradition
Before ovens were common in rural Ireland, grandmothers baked over glowing peat fires in cast-iron bastibles, yielding cakes that were rugged, dense, and uncompromisingly good. This is that ancestral cáca úll, engineered for an Ohio weeknight. We’re ditching the stand mixer and the fuss. By quickly rubbing cold, high-fat butter into flour—just like making biscuits—you build a sturdy, scone-like batter that swallows tart chunks of apple as it bakes. Crowned with raw sugar for a caramelized crunch, it’s the definitive slice of home, best devoured warm with a brutally strong cup of tea.
Before you start
Preheat the oven to 375°F.
Grease a 9x13-inch baking pan and line the bottom with parchment paper, leaving a little overhang on the sides for easy lifting later.
Ingredients
- unbleached all-purpose flour3 cup
- baking powder2 tsp
- kosher salt1/2 tsp
- ground cinnamon1/2 tsp
- ground nutmeg1/4 tsp
- ground cloves1/4 tsp
- salted European-style butter12 tbsp
- superfine or granulated sugar3/4 cup
- large eggs2 large
- whole milk1/2 cup
- vanilla extract1 tsp
- Granny Smith apples3 large
- turbinado sugar3 tbsp
Method
- 01
Whisk the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
Combine the flour, baking powder, kosher salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.
- 02
Rub the cold butter into the flour using just your fingertips.
Work quickly until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs with a few pea-sized lumps remaining. You can also pulse this in a food processor for fifteen seconds to save time on a weeknight. Once the texture is right, stir in the granulated sugar.
- 03
Bind the dough with the wet ingredients.
Whisk the eggs, milk, and vanilla together, then pour into the dry mix and gently fold with a wooden spoon. This is not a liquid cake batter; it will feel thick, stiff, and lumpy like biscuit dough. Do not overmix. Add an extra tablespoon of milk only if there are massive pockets of dry flour.
- 04
Build the traybake and sink the apples.
Spread half the thick batter into the prepared baking tray, using damp hands to press it evenly into the corners. Scatter the apple chunks evenly over the base layer, then drop the remaining batter in craggy dollops over the top. Don't worry about smoothing it out; as it bakes, the dough will swell and swallow the fruit.
- 05
Finish with a heavy coating of raw sugar.
Sprinkle the turbinado sugar generously over the raw dough to replicate the caramelized, crunchy crust forged by old cast-iron bastible pots over turf fires.
- 06
Bake for 40 to 45 minutes until deeply golden.
The top should be deeply browned with the sugar crystallized and crunchy. A toothpick inserted into the cakey sections should come out clean. Let it cool in the tin for fifteen minutes before lifting out by the parchment overhang and slicing into hearty squares.
Notes
Step away from the stand mixer.
Creaming the butter and sugar will over-aerate the dough, resulting in a standard, airy American coffee cake. The magic of this dish lies in its short, crumbly, rustic texture achieved solely by the traditional rubbing-in method.
Embrace the salt.
Historic Irish baking relied on heavily salted preserved butter. Using salted European butter like Kerrygold and a pinch of kosher salt perfectly offsets the tart apples and sweet crust, delivering an addictive sweet-and-salty dynamic.
From Cook Irish-American Food.