Favorite apple cake? mine is from a specific restaurant. Yours?

I've posted the recipe from there before, and will again in this post. I know it's not the only apple cake in the world, no matter how I love it. I'm baking this again today since I've both pink lady apples and and bartlett pears waiting for me..

Whether or not you have a recipe, do you have a favorite place to get apple cake or fruit cobbler or clafoutis?

My husband and I stopped at the Montagliari Vineyard in Panzano, Tuscany, one cold afternoon many years ago. I remember some quite wide patch of gravel our car crunched over, remember a roaring fire in the fireplace, remember not very specifically a good pasta dish and a glass of their good red wine, or was it a bottle? and some loud english tourists (well, I can understand their enjoyment), the rest of the restaurant empty that March afternoon. But mostly I remember the apple torta.

I'm not sure where I got this recipe, maybe from the La Divina Cucina blog:
www.divinacucina.com.


Torta de Mele Montagliari
This explanation by the person on whatever site I found the recipe at..

Each area in Italy has some sort of apple cake, but this one is my favorite. Golden Delicious apples, sliced paper thin, baked in almost a crepe batter until caramelized! It's heaven with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top and some of Giovanni Cappelli's Salsa di Mosto. (The traditional balsamic vinegar from Modena is a rich, sweet concentrate made without vinegar, as is Cappelli's Salsa di Mosto. Don't use the inexpensive grocery store versions which are okay for a salad, but not ice cream!)

5 Golden Delicious apples, peeled and sliced paper thin
2 eggs, extra large
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup milk
7 tablespoons butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons baking powder
Powdered sugar for decoration

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Butter and lightly flour two round pizza pans or a 9x13 lasagne pan.

Beat the eggs and sugar together and add the flour, baking powder, milk, butter and vanilla. Mix well. Add the apple slices and pour into the prepared pan. Place the pan on the bottom of the oven for 10 minutes, then place in the center of the oven to cook until golden, about 1 hour. Torta di Mele is a very thin, rich cake that will bake down to about one-half inch. It will cut easier if you let it cool before serving. But you can reheat it in the oven before serving.

notes on my typed recipe -
12/30/10 - added 1/3 tsp cinn this time - pink lady apples (don’t like it with pippins)
1/15/11 - using golden delicious; instead of vanilla, almond extract; added in whole raw almonds at the end. Still added 1/3 tsp cinn.
increased ingredients 3/2, still fit in baking dish..
8/14/15 - 3 pink lady apples, 2 bartlett pears; almond extract but no almonds this time; 1/4 tsp cinnamon. Followed original recipe otherwise, re proportions.
Adds, I've never used ice cream with it (good idea!) and won't spring for a very good balsamic, which I'd probably like.

In case you are ever near there -
Farmhouse Montagliari: Farmholidays in Chianti Winery shop in ...
www.fattoriamontagliari.com/en/home.html‎
"Fattoria Montagliari is a small family owned and run farm that has been producing wine using the most traditional methods since 1720. In fact, most of the barrels ..."