Torta di Mele di Bolzano con Cannella e Chiodi di Garofano

Ingredients

• 1.2 kg Renette apples, peeled, cored, sliced 5 mm thick
• 200 g plain flour, sifted
• 150 g unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for the mould
• 150 g caster sugar, divided: 100 g for batter, 50 g for apples
• 3 eggs, at room temperature
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1½ tsp ground cinnamon, for the apple toss
• ¼ tsp ground cloves, for the apple toss
• 1 tbsp grappa or pear Williams eau-de-vie, stirred into the batter
• 1 pinch fine salt
• To finish
• 2 tbsp icing sugar, dusted at the table

Method

1. 1
   Heat the oven to 170 °C. Butter a 24 cm springform mould thoroughly and line the base with a disc of baking paper, so the cake releases cleanly without tearing when you spring the collar later. Set aside.
2. 2
   Combine the sliced Renette apples in a large bowl with the 50 g of sugar, the cinnamon and the ground cloves, tossing until every slice is evenly coated so the spice is distributed through the finished cake rather than concentrated in patches. The sugar will begin to draw juice from the apples within a few minutes; the slices should glisten and smell sharply of warm spice.
3. 3
   Beat the softened butter with the remaining 100 g of sugar until the mixture is pale and slightly increased in volume, so the batter holds enough air to carry the weight of the apple slices without collapsing in the oven. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition, then stir in the grappa or eau-de-vie; the batter should be smooth, creamy and free of streaks.
4. 4
   Sift the flour, baking powder and salt directly over the butter mixture so the baking powder disperses evenly and the cake rises without dense pockets. Fold with a large spatula until just combined — no dry flour should remain visible, but the batter need not be perfectly smooth.
5. 5
   This is where the cake lives or dies. Tip the spiced apples and all their accumulated juice into the batter and fold with the broadest, slowest strokes possible — ten to twelve turns of the spatula at most — because the batter is a binder, not the structure, and the apples must remain as discrete slices; working the mixture further tightens the batter and the finished cake will be dense and tough where it should be tender and open. Stop the moment no dry batter is visible at the base of the bowl.
6. 6
   Pour the mixture into the prepared mould — it will be very full — and level the top lightly with the spatula. Slide into the centre of the oven and bake for 50 to 60 minutes; a skewer test is unreliable here because the dense apple mass remains moist throughout, so judge instead by sight — the top uniformly golden, the sides visibly pulling away from the mould, and the edge beginning to caramelise.
7. 7
   Remove from the oven and leave the cake undisturbed in its mould on a wire rack for 20 minutes so the apple juices redistribute through the crumb and the structure firms sufficiently for a clean unmoulding. Run a thin palette knife around the inner edge, release the springform clip, and lift away the collar; the sides should be set and pulling cleanly from the metal.
8. 8
   Transfer the cake to a serving plate. Dust with icing sugar at the moment of serving, not before, so the moist apple surface does not dissolve the sugar into a damp crust before it reaches the table. The surface should be matt white against a deep golden ground.