Hello Again...

Hi everyone! I'm just popping in for a quick hello...trying not to be so absent. By the way, thanks for all your nice visits on my last post. Anyway, can you believe it's August already? Oh, I hate to think of summer coming to a close. It's been so wonderful! I suppose that's the way it's meant to be though, the circle of life..as the one thing starts to wither, another is just awakening.

The hydrangeas are coming into bloom. I put together a few arrangements for the dining room. I love that they add just a bit of color...it feels fresh somehow.

I made a rustic apple tart this week too...twice actually. I'm not much of a pastry-maker, so I had to work on the crust a little and get it just the way I wanted it. The second time was a charm, luckily, since I really didn't want to make it a third time and eat all those calories. At least I got a few healthy servings of fruit though...right?

I think this will be a nice desert for autumn with all the apples that will be coming into season. Honeycrisps and Pink Ladies are my favorites. What kinds do you prefer?

Rustic Apple Tart

• 2 cups flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 stick unsalted butter, chilled and diced into small pieces
• 1 egg yolk, beaten
• 6 tablespoons water, ice-cold
• 2 Pink Lady apples
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• lemon juice

Mix flour, sugar and salt together in a medium sized bowl. Add butter and using a using a food processor, pastry cutter or two knives in a criss-cross fashion, cut in the butter until it's pea size and the mixture looks crumbly...I use my hands to work everything together at the end, but not for too long because you want the butter to remain very cold. Whisk together the egg yolk and the water and then add it to the dry mixture. The dough will seem dry, but just work it into a ball with your hands. You could add just a bit more water if you think it's needed. Form dough into a ball, wrap in plastic and place it in the refrigerator. 

Fill a medium sized bowl half full of cold water and add a healthy squirt of lemon juice. Leaving the peelings on, but removing the cores, cut up the apples into approximated 1/4 inch slices. Place the apples into the lemon water as you're cutting. Set aside.

Lightly flour your work surface. Get out your dough and roll it out to about a 15 -16 inch diameter. Place a 9 to 10 inch tart pan with a removeable bottom on the center of your dough. Using your pan as a guide, trim the dough into a clean circle extending out approximately 3 inches from the base of the pan. Place dough into pan. I baked my tart in a pan since I wanted a perfect circle, but you could easily make this tart on a sheet pan covered in parchment paper too.  

Mix together cinnamon and sugar. Sprinkle 3/4 of the mixture into the pan. Place apples in a spiral pattern around the edge of the pan, overlapping them slightly as you go. Place a few apples in the center of your  circle. Create a second spiral of apples over the top of the first, closer to the center of the pan. Sprinkle remaining cinnamon and sugar mixture along the edge of the pan. Melt butter and brush over the apples. Fold up crust and brush with a little melted butter.

Bake in a preheated 400 degree oven for approximately 30 minutes until the tart is lightly browned and the juices are bubbling. Cover with aluminum foil after about 15 minutes to keep the tart from getting too brown. Towards the end of baking, I also take my pastry brush and wet it with a little bit of the juices that are bubbling up in the center of the tart and brush it over the apples to keep them nice and moist.

Serve slightly warm and enjoy.

Well, that's all for today. Hope you have a sunny and happy weekend!

xo

I'm sharing my post at:

Common Ground
French Country Cottage