Thursday, February 21, 2008

rustic apple tart...


pastry:

1 cup flour

2 Tbsp sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 pound (1 stick) very cold butter, diced

2 tablespoons ice water


filling:

1 1/2 pounds baking apples (3 large)

1 Tbsp lemon juice

1/4 cup flour

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp nutmeg

4 Tbsp (1/2 stick) cold butter, diced


For the pastry, place the flour, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse a few times to combine. Add the butter and pulse 12 to 15 times, or until the butter is the size of peas. With the motor running, add the ice water all at once through the feed tube. Keep hitting the pulse button to combine, but stop the machine just before the dough becomes a solid mass. Turn the dough onto a well-floured board and form into a disk. Wrap with plastic and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.
Flour a rolling pin and roll the pastry into a circle on a lightly floured surface. Transfer it to a baking sheet.
For the filling, peel, core, and cut the apples into chunks. Toss the chunks with the lemon juice. Cover the tart dough with the apple chunks leaving a 1 1/2-inch border.
Combine the flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Add the butter and combine until the mixture is crumbly. Pour into a bowl and rub it with your fingers until it starts holding together. Sprinkle evenly on the apples. Gently fold the border over the apples to enclose the dough, pleating it to make a circle.
Bake the tart for 20 to 25 minutes, until the crust is golden and the apples are tender. Allow to cool. Serve warm or at room temperature.


This is FABULOUS!! Another winner from Ina. The pastry crust is amazingly delicious. Yum, yum, yum...


If you do not have a food processor, a pastry cutter, or even two forks will do the job. The most important part is that the butter and water have to be cold. It is what makes the pastry flakey and not too dense. I actually did this a little different than the recipe suggests...I combined all of the filling ingredients together with the apples, and just dotted the top with a little butter, instead of making it a crumb topping. Either way, you can not go wrong with this baby. Have I mentioned how good it is? (If you look closely at the photo you can see the bubbly goodness...)




2 comments:

diane said...

That is incredible! I'm still craving it!!

Anne said...

Looks wonderful! I love Ina's recipes too!