Happy Birthday To Me! Caramel Apple Torte From My Special Guest, Chef Dennis!!!

Hi folks!


Yah baby, you read that right. It's my birthday. Today is mah birthday! Your favourite Lunatic was born on January 20th, 19- *mumbles and covers her mouth* something or other. The day the world was rocked by my presence in it. Yup, no ego here folks. *grins from ear to ear*


As you know I guest posted for the wonderful Dennis *foodie rock star* at A Culinary Journey with Chef Dennis last month. I made eclairs for the first time evah! So good and shockingly easy. Or beginners luck I think. I made them a second time and they bombed big time. I mean they stank up the joint. It happens occasionally. Not often cuz I rock in the kitchen (true dat), but once in a blue moon something goes wrong. Anyhow long story...er...longer, while I had Chef Dennis under the power of my eclairs and he was not thinking clearly, I took full advantage of him and asked him to guest post here at the asylum. And not just any guest post or any recipe. I, having no personal regard for boundaries, asked Chef Dennis to bake me a birthday cake. Yup, that's how I roll folks. No fear folks, fear is for wussies! I was delighted when Dennis said yes. I am sure it had nothing to do with the sugar high. I've been so curious what my cake would be. I generally give my guests full rein here at the asylum. When I got the photos I was stunned. It's ah-mah-zing!!! Thank you so much Dennis, I am so touched and honoured you agreed to bake me a cake. Now without further ado, here is the man who puts the buzz in foodbuzz, the grace in gracious, and the apples in my slamming birthday cake!!! I give you *oh, ah, loud applause* the amazing Chef Dennis!

I would like to welcome you all to Cravings of a Lunatic!  Today is a very special day; it’s my friend Kim’s Birthday!!   I was so honored when she asked me to do a guest post for her birthday post, and so happy that it fell on a time when I was able to do it.  For those of you that don’t know me, I’m chef Dennis and besides keeping my blog going, I have the privilege of feeding 560 of the best girls in the whole world, at Mount Saint Joseph Academy, in Flourtown Pa.

As you can imagine I keep a busy schedule as a working chef / unit director / culinary Instructor….sigh, so when Kim told me the date , I was overjoyed to be able to guest post for her!  I have to tell you the first time I got an email from Kim, and the heading said Lunatic, I thought it was spam…..luckily I opened it, and got a very nice message from a new blogger.  Now every time I see the word Lunatic in the header it makes me smile!  

So at this time I would like to wish you a very happy birthday my friend, and thank you from the bottom of my heart for all that you do to help make our community stronger, for your friendship and your support……and since I knew it was your birthday, I baked you a cake!

A few weeks ago I made a chocolate chip ricotta torte, and the cake itself was really delicious, so I thought I would give it a try with apples instead of ricotta and the results were amazing, especially with a little extra caramel drizzled over top, the only thing missing was the vanilla ice cream!   So if you do make it serve it up with a big scoop of your favorite vanilla ice cream, Enjoy!

Caramel Apple Torte

Inspired by a recipe from “Cooking with Patty”

Ingredients:

Cake aka crust

3 1/2 cups flour

3/4 cup sugar

12 oz very cold butter sliced thinly

2 1/4 tsp. baking powder

2  large eggs

3 Tbsp Greek Yogurt (plain or vanilla)

Filling and Caramel Sauce

6 medium apples (I used gala)

½ cup brown sugar

2 oz butter

2 oz heavy cream

Instructions:

1.      Peel the apples and cut into small slices or chunks, then set aside

2.     In a sauté pan heat the sugar until it starts to brown, don’t stir the sugar, but try to keep it moving by rolling the pan around.

3.     As the sugar melts and browns add the butter and mix it in using a wooden spoon. Add in the heavy cream, just be careful it doesn't splash up on you, mixing in the cold cream can be a bit tricky. Stir until smooth.

4.     Add in the apples and allow to simmer for a bit, to get in some of the caramel flavor

5.     Remove the apples from the caramel letting them drain a bit so they are not too wet, and allow to cool a bit.

6.     In a large bowl mix all of the ingredients for the crust together, except the butter

7.     Cut the butter into very thin slices and add it to the mixture working it in gently, you don’t want the butter to blend in, the mixture should be chunky.*

8.     Press half of the mixture gently into the bottom of a 9 inch spring form pan that has been greased with butter and dusted with flour. (do not mash it down!)

9.     Add the apples to the bottom layer and spread evenly.

10.  spread the remaining crust mixture evenly on top of the apples

11.  Bake in a preheated oven for 45 – 50 minutes at 350° or until a toothpick stuck in comes out clean

12.  The remaining caramel sauce will have thinned out from the juice in the apples, allow it to simmer and reduce until it has re-thickened.

13.  Drizzle the torte with your caramel sauce and enjoy!

14.  The Caramel Apple Torta is best served warm or at room temperature.

Notes.
* put the butter in the freezer for 20 or 30 minutes before slicing it.
*you can press down the crust on top of the filling but be very gentle, the crust forms as the butter melts, giving the cake that rustic look.

And that my friends is my Caramel Apple Torte, thanks for stopping by today and thank you Kim for allowing me to share your blog on this very special day,  Happy birthday!

Thank you so much Chef Dennis. I am so happy with my cake and so grateful to call you my friend. You do so much to better the blogging community and we are lucky to have someone like you. Your integrity and class raise the bar for the rest of us. And speaking of class, if I could just drag you to the dark side and get you swear like a sailor when we finally meet in person I'll be one happy Lunatic.

Okay Lunatic fans make sure you head over A Culinary Journey with Chef Dennis and sufficiently stalk him. Dennis does a series called Ask Chef Dennis that will blow your mind. He shares information folks. About blogging. How cool is that? I know right! He's sweet, kind and supportive. This man can cook my friends. He always delivers, with decadent treats and meals that would make restaurants jealous.  It doesn't get much better folks. You can also find him on TWITTER, PINTEREST, GOOGLE +, and FACEBOOK. Tell him the Lunatic sent you over to stalk his a**!

Now as a little bonus I am announcing a giveaway for my birthday. Please come back tomorrow evening to see what surprises I have in store for you. It's a birthdaypalooza here this weekend. Your going to  want to wear you best party hats for this folks. 3 days of birthday posts. First cake, then presents and then ice cream. Yup, we're rocking it Lunatic style. So get your streamers and sound those silly little horns. I want a partah! 

                             Courtesy and rights go to Youtube!

Toodles and big birthday smoochies.xx