Low Sodium, delicious moist Mesquite Apple Cake #Recipe #GardenCuizine

~ Low Sodium ~ 
Mesquite Apple Cake

A few notes about this delicious dessert: It's not your typical Jewish Apple Cake. This cake is lower in saturated fat and sodium and darker in color. The abundance of apples keeps the cake moist. Apple sauce replaces half the fat. If you happen to have snack size apple sauce (4oz) on hand, that's the perfect amount needed for this recipe, 1/2 cup. What if you have flavored, not "plain" applesauce? Any natural flavor would taste great too. 

Mesquite Flour

Why mesquite in apple cake? Well, it's not adding smokey flavor if that's what you're thinking. Mesquite smoke flavor comes from burning wood chips from Mesquite trees. Mesquite chips used in grilling add a distinct smoke flavor to foods. My recipe uses Mesquite Flour. Mesquite flour comes from Mesquite bean pods that grow on drought tolerant trees in places like Arizona,Texas and Mexico. The pods can be dried and ground. Mesquite flour is fat free and a source of dietary fiber, calcium, iron, vitamin C and other nutrients. It doesn't change the flavor of baked goods. The cake tastes like apple cake.

And, although this is not a gluten-free cake, Mesquite flour is gluten free and can be used in gluten-free recipes. The recipe calls for 1/4 cup 100% mesquite flour. Mesquite is a specialty flour with limited availability. I mail ordered it online from Casa deFruta, (update 6/30/17: I was recently notified that they no longer stock it; see links below for other sources). You can substitute regular all purpose flour for mesquite flour in this recipe, but I recommend you give mesquite flour a try. Mesquite flour gives baked goods added nutrition and appealing gingerbread color. 

Yields 1 Apple Cake

Ingredients
1 1/4 cup (250g) sugar
2 teaspoons (4g) ground cinnamon
4 large apples: 5 cups (~864g), peeled, cored and diced
  
1/2 cup (118ml) vegetable oil
1/2 cup natural unsweetened apple sauce
2 large eggs (100g)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 cup mesquite flour (if you don't have it, can use all purpose) 
1/4 teaspoon (1.5g) salt
1 teaspoon (4g) baking soda

Putting it all together
Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C)

• Lightly spray and flour one round spring-form cake or bundt pan with hole in center
• Combine 1/4 cup sugar and cinnamon together in a small bowl and set aside
• Peel, core and chop apples to equal about 5 cups. Toss the chopped apples in a large bowl with the cinnamon sugar and set aside.  
• In a mixing bowl, beat together oil, applesauce, eggs and vanilla until creamy.
• In another bowl, sift together flours, salt and baking soda
• Slowly add flour mixture to the egg mixture and mix until combined and makes a thick batter
• Fold in the apples using a plastic spatula. Spread batter into the prepared pan.
   
• Bake for 45-55 minutes or until cake tests done.
• Let cake cool on a wire rack. Once cake is cool, remove from pan and serve with a dusting of powdered sugar.

~Buon Appetito!

GardenCuizine Nutrition Data: Calculated using USDA Nutrition Data
Good Source: Selenium
Serving size 1/16th of recipe (109g): calories 224, total fat 8g, saturated fat 1g, Omega-3 635mg, cholesterol 26mg, sodium 125mg (5%DV), carbohydrate 38g, dietary fiber 2g (8%DV), protein 3g, Vitamin C 3.9mg (7%DV), Vitamin E 1.3mg (7%DV), Vitamin K 5.4 mcg (7%DV), Thiamin .1mg (9%DV), Riboflavin .1mg (8%DV), Folate 32mcg (8%DV), Iron 1mg (6%DV), Manganese .2mg (9%DV), Selenium 7.4mcg (11%DV)

Related Links:  
Source and Recipes for Mesquite Flour

Velvet mesquite Prosopis velutina 
Desert Harvesters

Photos and Recipe Copyright ©2011 Wind. All rights reserved. Updated 6/30/17.