Apple Tart

When I was a kid, the only red apples that we ever bought were Red Delicious. I don’t know what marketing genius came up with that name, because they were far from delicious. Bruised, mush and thick skinned, they hardly made for good snacking.  These days, there are almost too many apples to choose from.  Our local grocery store actually goes a little crazy and has over 40 varieties of apples—Cameo, Empire, Gala, Fuji, Jazz, Ambrosia, Honeycrisp... While I still don’t care much for raw apples, I do love baking with them.

Apple tarts or Tartes aux Pommes, come in many iterations. In its purest form, it’s a layer of apples spread over pastry dough. Of course, there are fancier versions, such as the tarte Tatin—with caramelized apples, and the tarte Normande—which has a custard filling and sliced almonds.

For the simplest apple tart, you can buy a package of frozen puff pastry and slice some apples, dot with butter and sugar, and throw the whole thing in the oven. It’s dead easy and requires very little work. 

Even better is to make your own puff pastry. It is flakier and puffs up more than the store bought variety. Admittedly, it’s kind of a pain—not because it’s difficult, but that it requires a bit of planning and leaves your kitchen in a kind of perpetual mess. The blitz puff pastry method described below, is marginally faster, but I find that it’s less finicky and doesn’t require any skill or finesse. Both methods, whether it’s traditional or blitz, aim to create layers of dough-butter-dough through a series of folds. It’s like origami, but better tasting.

Blitz Puff Pastry

Adapted from http://bravetart.com/recipes/blitz

The key is to keep everything cold, so the resting times are a minimum. I’ve tried several times to rush this, and you either get pastry that doesn’t rise or doesn’t roll out well.

8 ounces (225g) all purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 Tbsp sugar

8 ounces (225g, 1 stick) of cold butter

5 ounces/10 Tbsp of ice cold water, more or less

1. In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, salt and sugar. Cube the butter and add to the flour mixture. Using a knife or pastry blender cut the butter into the flour until you get marble sized chunks of butter.

2. Drizzle in the ice cold water a little at a time, mixing with a fork. Add just enough until everything starts to hold together. The dough will look pretty shaggy.

3. Invert this mess onto a piece of plastic wrap, and wrap tightly. Smack it a bit so that it forms a brick shape. Place in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

4. Unwrap the dough and placed on a lightly floured surface. Using a flour-dusted rolling pin, roll it into a rough rectangle. It’s going to be difficult to roll with all the butter chunks, and the edges will crack, but that’s okay. Try to keep the sides straight, it'll make it that much easier to fold later. Roll the dough until you get a rectangle about 0.5 inches/1 cm thick. The exact dimensions don’t really matter.

5. Fold the top half down towards the midline. Then fold the bottom half up to the midline, and then fold the whole thing in half. Gently tap the sides on the counter to flatten the dough a bit and to give it more of brick shape. Wrap the whole thing up in plastic and throw it back in the fridge and let it rest about 1 hour. This is your 1^st fold.

6. Repeat the whole process, rolling out the dough to form a long rectangle, folding, and resting in the fridge for at least an hour each time, for a total of 3-4 folds. As you roll-and-fold, you will notice that the dough becomes smoother and more pliable, and that the butter becomes evenly dispersed throughout the dough. If, after 3 folds, I still see huge globs of butter, I’ll do one more fold.

7. After the last fold, wrap up your brick of dough and refrigerate it for at least 2 hours, or overnight before using in your tart. It’s good for 2 days in the fridge. You can even freeze it. 

Apple Tart

Adapted from Martha Stewart http://www.marthastewart.com/334356/apple-tart

1 sheet of puff pastry, or 1 batch from above

All-purpose flour, for dusting

3-4 large apples (I like Honeycrisp)

1/3-1/2 cup pumpkin butter

2 Tbsp apricot jam

Traditionally, apple compote/apple sauce is added to the base of the tart. I add pumpkin butter—I think it adds a bit more flavour and I need a reason to dig into my stockpile of Trader Joe’s pumpkin butter.  I’ve also done this with cranberry butter and fig butter, so your fruit base is up to you.

1. Roll out puff pastry into a rectangle. The exact dimensions don’t matter, but you want it pretty thin, around 1/8” or 3-4 mm. A thicker pastry is fine too; it just doesn’t bake as well, and gives you a chewier base. I usually end up with a rectangle around 8”x14” (20cm x 35cm). Transfer to a parchment paper lined rimmed baking sheet.

2. Trim off a thin strip of dough from all the edges. This helps everything rise evenly—otherwise you might get giant bulges during baking. Using a knife, lightly mark off a ¼ inch or 0.5 cm border around the pastry. Then use a fork to prick the dough inside the border.

3. Place the dough and baking sheet in the refrigerator while you prepare the apples

4.  Core and slice the apples. I always leave the peels on because I like the contrast that the skins provide. Aim for slices around 1/8” or 2-3 mm thick.

5. Remove the chilled pastry from the fridge.  Spread the pumpkin butter all over the surface, and then layer with the apple slices. Make sure you stay your marked border. You can go all free form and abstract, or go classical and symmetrical with your apples here. Make sure that the slices are tightly overlapping. To form a crust, fold up the edges of the pastry over the outer edge of the apple slices.

6. Place the tart back in the fridge to chill while the oven is preheating to 400 F/200C.

7. Bake the tart until the edges begin to puff, about 15-20 minutes. Reduce the heat to 375F/190C and continue baking until the pastry is a golden brown, another 25-30 minutes.

8. Transfer the tart to a wire rack.

9. To add some sheen and colour, microwave the apricot jam in a heat proof bowl. I usually heat for 10 seconds, stir and heat for another 10 seconds, but keep an eye on it because it can splatter. Brush the entire tart, including the crust with the melted jam.

10. Serve warm, at room temperature, or even chilled. You can sprinkle it with icing sugar, or top with crème fraîche, whipped cream or ice cream.