Help: Apple Tart

[DCMark]

Hello all you pastry masters. I am almost afraid to come in here but am confident you will help a newbie out who is facing a very stressful situation.

To make a long story short, I am responsible for making an apple tart for Thanksgiving. It was going to be made by my French wife, but for reasons I will not go into here ( ) I will be making it.

Note: I am a decent cook but have never made pastry before. Small city kitchen, no mixer or food processor. I do have a rolling pin and a tart pan!

I have persued some recepies on Epicurious and some suggest using frozen puff pastry. Will this work out ok? Is tart crust 'puff pastry'?

Any basic recipies of apple tart would be most welcome.

Thank you,

Mark

Edited November 17, 2005 by DCMark (log)

[Woods]

Hello all you pastry masters.  I am almost afraid to come in here but am confident you will help a newbie out who is facing a very stressful situation.

To make a long story short, I am responsible for making an apple tart for Thanksgiving.  It was going to be made by my French wife, but for reasons I will not go into here (  ) I will be making it. 

Note: I am a decent cook but have never made pastry before.  Small city kitchen, no mixer or food processor.  I do have a rolling pin and a tart pan!

I have persued some recepies on Epicurious and some suggest using frozen puff pastry.  Will this work out ok?  Is tart crust 'puff pastry'?

Any basic recipies of apple tart would be most welcome.

Thank you,

Mark

←

Mark, I would use pate brisee which is basically tart crust made with butter. You can find recipes all over. If you look in recipegullet you will find good recipes. The trick is to roll it when still cold.

[jackal10]

Good quality frozen puff pastry is OK, For a novice it is a good option.

You might want to give it a couple of "turns" with some more butter.

Choice of apples is important as well. I like Granny Smiths for open tarts.

Are you making individual tarts or one large one? Round or oblong?

Anyway roll out your pastry. If maiking a round tart keep turning it by one eighth of a turn as you roll. Putting them on baking parchment helps.

Peel, core and cut the apple into nice segments; lay neatley on the pastry leaving a border all round. Don't overload. Dot with butter and sprinkle with sugar. Cook in hot oven util the tops of the apple segments go dark brown and caramalise - about half an hour. Take out and brush with glaze - dilute apricot jam. Serve with thick cream.

Alternatively you can make a Tart Tatin, which I think is a little easier, spectacular, and hides mistakes better...

[bushey]

I've made an apple tart with puff pastry, and it was delicious, but my favortie is Patricia Wells' recipe for Thin Apple Tart from her Paris cookbook. Fairly easy to make and gets rave reviews.

Also delicious, but a bit more time consuming is the Rustic Apple Tart that was in Gourmet a few years ago.

(edited to add link)

Edited November 17, 2005 by bushey (log)

[Swisskaese]

I make this recipe all the time with seasonal fruits. It is very easy to make.

Apple Gallette

[DCMark]

thanks everyone.

Hopefully this will not be my last foray into pastry.

[Patrick S]

If you want a ridiculously easy tart, try this:

1 sheet puff pastry, thawed (store-bought is fine)

2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and sliced very thin

2T butter, melted

1T sugar

3T Apple Jelly, melted

Lay out the puff sheet on parchment. Using a baking pan or plate as a template, cut out a 9" circle of puff. Dock it all over with a fork, except for a 1/2" margin. Arrange your apple slices, overlapping, in two concentric circles, again leaving the 1/2" margin clear. Brush with butter. Sprinkle with suagr. Bake til the edges of the apples start to get some color, around 15-20 minutes. Remove tart from oven, brush with apple jelly.

[Brioche57]

I second the Galette. Everytime I make one the response is "it looks so french!" Makes me smile...and the margin of error is huge.......well, there's barely a margin. So forgiving.

In the November Saveur there's an interesting recipe for Apple pie that intrigued me. Baked in a 9 x 13 pryex pan for 3 hours at a low temperature. I had to do it. One word? AMAZING.

[*Deborah*]

This is a super-easy tart that I do, that people love. You don't need a mixer! and you don't need to wrestle with puff pastry (I'm scared of puff pastry). A few posts down from that linked post I say where to get the recipe.

[cookman]

I've made an apple tart with puff pastry, and it was delicious, but my favortie is Patricia Wells' recipe for Thin Apple Tart from her Paris cookbook. Fairly easy to make and gets rave reviews.

Also delicious, but a bit more time consuming is the Rustic Apple Tart that was in Gourmet a few years ago.

(edited to add link)

←

Do you by any chance have a link for Wells' recipe for Thin Apple Tart? I'd like to try it for Thanksgiving!

Thanks!!