Apple Pie Mini Cakes

Individual apple-pie cakes baked in a muffin tin: brown-butter crumb, a spoon of cinnamon apple in the center, oat streusel on top, and an optional maple glaze. Mix a tart apple with a sweet one so the filling stays pie-like, not sauce.

By Brandon Carroll

Yield: 12 mini cakes

Prep: 25 minutes

Cook: 20-24 minutes

Total: about 55 minutes

Ingredients

Apple filling

• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 2 medium apples, peeled, cored, and diced small (about 2 cups; 1 Honeycrisp and 1 Granny Smith)
• 2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• pinch kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon cornstarch stirred with 1 tablespoon cold water

Streusel

• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour (40 g)
• 3 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• pinch kosher salt
• 2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cubed
• 2 tablespoons old-fashioned rolled oats

Cake

• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter (85 g)
• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup whole milk or buttermilk (120 ml)
• 1 cup all-purpose flour (125 g)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

For the pan

• Soft butter or baking spray, for the muffin tin

Optional glaze

• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1 to 2 teaspoons maple syrup, plus a splash of milk if needed

Instructions

1. Heat the oven to 350 F. Butter a 12-cup muffin tin well, including the rims, or spray it. A small parchment square in the bottom of each cup makes release cleaner, but a well-buttered tin is enough.
2. Apple filling: melt 1 tablespoon butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add the diced apples, 2 tablespoons brown sugar, lemon juice, 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon, nutmeg, and a pinch of salt. Cook 4 to 5 minutes, stirring, until the apples are glossy and just tender, still holding their shape. Stir in the cornstarch slurry and cook 30 seconds until the juices thicken. Scrape onto a plate and cool. Do not cook them to mush or the pocket will sink the cake.
3. Streusel: in a bowl, rub 1/3 cup flour, 3 tablespoons brown sugar, 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, a pinch of salt, and the cold butter cubes until you have pea-size crumbs. Stir in the oats. Keep it cold.
4. Brown 6 tablespoons butter in a light-colored saucepan over medium heat until the milk solids are amber and it smells nutty, 3 to 4 minutes. Cool 5 minutes. Whisk in 1/2 cup brown sugar and the granulated sugar until glossy. Beat in the egg and vanilla, then the milk. Batter may look slightly split; that is fine.
5. Whisk 1 cup flour, baking powder, baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Stir the dry mix into the wet just until no dry flour remains. Batter should be thick, closer to cookie dough than pancake batter.
6. Spoon about 1 tablespoon of batter into each cup. Add a heaping teaspoon of cooled apple filling. Cover with the remaining batter, about 1 tablespoon per cup, so the apples are sealed. Top each cake with streusel. Do not press the streusel flat.
7. Bake 20 to 24 minutes, until the streusel is golden and a toothpick into the cake (not the apple pocket) comes out with a few moist crumbs. Cake center should read about 200 F if you check it.
8. Cool in the pan 8 minutes. Run a thin knife around each cake and lift out onto a rack. Optional glaze: whisk powdered sugar with 1 to 2 teaspoons maple syrup until thick and drizzleable; add a splash of milk only if it will not fall off a spoon. Drizzle over the warm cakes. Best the day they are baked. Covered at room temperature 2 days, or refrigerated 4 days. Rewarm 8 minutes at 300 F.