It’s week two in our apple series, and what’s more typical of apples than a pie? Or rather a tart. This is my favorite way to have apples and crispy sweet pastry crust. Sometimes I even prefer it over the traditional apple pie, tented with crust and oozing with syrup. Both, however, are my absolute favorite fall dessert when paired with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream.
This tart is simple, and I love simple and beautiful desserts. I also love that I can make the pastry a couple days in advance, keep it in the freezer, then when I’m feeling in the mood for an apple tart all I have to do is slice up the apples and make sure I’ve got ice cream in stock. I also love the flavor that the whole grain flour adds to the crust. You can play with different types of flours to find your flavor and texture preference, or feel free to use all purpose flour if you’re not feeling advantageous.
spelt pâte sucrée
slightly altered from Alice Waters
3/4 cups spelt or whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter or coconut oil, at room temperature/soft
1 egg yolk, optional
1/2 cup natural cane sugar or 4 – 6 Tablespoons maple syrup (if not using egg yolk)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
a few apples
cinnamon, optional
sugar
butter or coconut oil
jam or fruit butter
Sift together the flours and salt. In a mixer, cream together the butter, egg yolk, 2 Tablespoons of the maple syrup and the vanilla extract. Mix in the flour until just combined (no dry flour). Shape the dough into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap and slightly flatten. Let sit in the fridge for a few hours or overnight.
Take out the dough from the freezer, and set on the counter for about 10 minutes. Unwrap the dough, and set between two large pieces of parchment. Roll out the dough to 1/4 to 1/8 inch thickness with a rolling pin. Gently set it in a 10-11 inch tart pan, patching any holes with excess dough, then set the tart pan in the freezer for a while.
At this point, you can let the dough stay in the freezer until you plan to bake the tart, cover it with plastic wrap or slide into a large zip bag if you are letting it stay in there more than a couple hours.
to bake the tart:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees fahrenheit with a rack in the lower third of the oven.
Peel, core, and thinly slice the apples. Align them in the dough lined tart pan. Sprinkle the apple slices with a little cinnamon and a little sugar, then spoon chunks of butter/coconut oil on top in random places. Bake the tart for 25 – 30 minutes, until the apples are browned and the pastry is crisp. When they come out of the oven, brush with a little bit of warmed jam or fruit butter that has been sitting atop the oven.
Allow the tart to cool a little before serving with whipped cream, ice cream, whatever you like.
enjoy!
notes:
- To make sure the dough is easy to work with, dust it with flour as needed while rolling it out.
- If you’re pastry dough is frozen when you place it in the oven, you may have to let it bake 5 – 10 minutes longer.
- If you have extra dough, roll it out, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, score it into long columns, then bake in preheated oven for about 10 minutes until brown to make cinnamon sticks.
