There’s a chill in the air in the mornings. The trees are changing into a variety of reds and golden tones. There are tour buses full of ‘leaf-peepers’ stopping off in my historic New England town on their way to find the best foliage. And Little Miss Traybakes has been asking for some time now when we are going apple picking. So, while my thoughts were with all things autumnal, and using up the large bag of apples we picked at our favorite orchard, I thought I’d bake this Apple Traybake. (Although at the rate Little Miss Traybakes eats apples, there aren’t really that many to ‘use up’.)

This is essentially an apple cake that you can cut into slices/bars/squares. It’s easy and quick to make and is very tasty. I cut mine up into small squares and ate it like a regular traybake. But I can just imagine that a large slab of this, still warm from the oven and smothered in custard, would be delicious.

If you live somewhere that you can get hold of cooking apples, then please use them for this recipe. Sadly, I have never been able to find Bramley apples here in Massachusetts. But I had no problems using eating apples. The apples will remain a little firmer after the traybake has baked.

If you don’t have self-raising flour for this recipe, you can use plain/all-purpose flour with 2 tsp baking powder, and a pinch of salt. Just remember to sift them together before you add it to the mixture.

You have two options for finishing this Apple Traybake. You can either sprinkle it with sugar after you have removed it from the oven. Or, alternatively, before it goes into the oven, you can sprinkle demerara sugar over the top. This makes a nice crunchy topping for the traybake.

As with a lot of bakes, I’d recommend eating this the same day you make it. But it still tastes good after that, if you have any left.

Apple Traybake

A simple, vanilla-scented traybake filled with juicy apples.

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Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 30 minutes mins

Course Dessert

Servings 9 squares

Ingredients

  

• 4 oz or 110g butter
• 4 oz or 110g caster sugar
• 1 egg (beaten)
• 8 oz or 225g self-raising flour
• 8 oz or 225g apples, peeled, cored and chopped (this is the weight needed after you have peeled and cored the apples)
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• 1-2 tbsp milk

Instructions

 

• Preheat oven to 350F/180C in a conventional oven.
• Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
• Add the beaten egg and vanilla and mix well.
• Fold through the flour. Then add the apples with a splash of milk to help loosen the mixture.
• Spread into a lined 8"/20cm square tin and bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.
• Remove from the oven, sprinkle the top with sugar and leave to cool in the tin before cutting into squares.

Video

Keyword apples, easy, traybake, vanilla