MoFo Day 25: Turkish Apple Cake

Today's is a recipe that is still a work in process, but I thought it was worth posting anyway. I found a recipe for Turkish apple cake in my Middle Eastern Vegetarian Cookery book and was drawn to the recipe by the fact that it contained no oil - a great start in trying to make a recipe Eat To Live-friendly. Replacing the 50 g of sugar with finely chopped dates and a wee glug of date syrup wasn't entirely successful and the finished cake wasn't beautiful but it tasted just fine eaten as a dessert with some cashew creme and I really liked the fact that it wasn't overly-sweet. I obviously need to do some more research into fat-free, sugar-free baking, but in the meantime I will definitely make this again - I think it would be fabulous made with rhubarb or gooseberries. The original recipe called for the cooking apples to be peeled, cored and chopped which is what I did. I think perhaps I should have either chopped them finer or grated them, so I'll try that next time and see what difference it makes. The flour makes it unsuitable for the Eat To Live 6 week plan, which is what I normally eat but it's not too bad as an occasional treat.

Turkish Apple Cake

350 g cooking apples, peeled, cored and chopped
juice of half a lemon
50 g dates, finely chopped
50 g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
25 g mixed nuts
25 g sultanas or chopped dried apricot
1/4 tsp vanilla essence
1 egg replacer
1 glug of date syrup

Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 4 (350F/175C). Put chopped apples in a bowl and sprinkle with lemon juice. Put flour, dates and baking powder into a food processor and pulse so that dates are even more finely chopped. Add mixed nuts and sultanas or dried apricot  and pulse once or twice to distribute evenly. Add this to the apples, together with vanilla essence and egg replacer. Mix well and stir in a glug of date syrup. Pour the mixture into a lightly oiled cake tin (I lined my cake tin with baking parchment instead of oiling it)  and bake for 20 minutes or until the top is lightly browned on top. Serve hot or cold with cashew creme.