Necessity is, as my friend Michelle has pointed out, more often the mother of improvisation than invention. When you accidentally poach apples longer than you should have and do not have the time to make more, you figure out how to make a birthday-worthy dessert out of applesauce.
Baker Leslie Mackie (via the book Baking with Julia) came to my rescue reminding me of a French apple tart that combines a thick applesauce with apple slices. Upon eating the resulting creation, my mom said “Who needs birthday cake when you can have this?”
To make this tart—and it is a tart rather than a pie—easier, I’m going to suggest using store-bought applesauce. There are many brands and I’m sure the quality varies, with some of the higher-end brands being made of specific varieties of apples, and possibly including spices, lemon rind, or an apple liqueur.
If you find something along those lines it will probably be fine as is; if you choose something more basic it may need some doctoring. Taste it and add sugar, lemon, a pinch of cinnamon or ginger, or a splash of brandy if you think it needs it. And don’t forget salt—salt makes things taste more like what they are supposed to taste like. People getting all hepped up about too much salt is ruining American food.
For the sliced apples, Pippins, Mutsus, Golden Delicious and Granny Smith are all reliable cooking apples, but if you can find very fresh (and by that I mean very firm, not at all mealy) Winesaps, they are excellent. You’re going to need a removable bottom tart pan for this recipe, but you can get them at most cookware stores, and the tinned steel variety are usually ten dollars or less.
I forgot to photograph mine, but this is pretty close to what it looked like.
Apple Tart
Pasty for a single crust pie (preferably one made with butter)
2 to 3 cups applesauce
3 tablespoons butter
Sugar, salt, lemon juice and/or rind, cinnamon, ginger, all to taste
3 medium to large apples
1 lemon
1 to 2 tablespoons sugar
Apricot jam, heated until liquidy, optional
Barely sweetened whipped cream, or crème fraiche, for serving
Chopped candied ginger for garnish, optional (but awfully good)
Roll out the pasty to a thickness of 1/8-inch (or close to it) and fit it into the pan. Trim off all but 1-inch of the overhang and fold it into the pan to make the edges thicker than the rest of the pastry, pressing it lightly to seal it itself. Chill the dough until needed, at least a half hour.
Sample your chosen applesauce and analyze the taste and texture, starting with the latter. It should be thick, not quite as dense as apple butter, but thick enough to hold its shape when scooped up with a spoon. The odds are it will need to be cooked to evaporate some moisture and tighten it up a bit. Cook the 3 cups of applesauce (which will reduce by about a cup) on the stove or in the microwave, as you like, stirring frequently, until it meets the above criteria. If you are going to be cooking it anyway, this is a good time to enhance the flavor by adding a strip or two of lemon or orange rind, and some spices if you like.
Stir in 1 tablespoon of the butter and taste the sauce, adding anything you think is needed to create a slightly sweet, highly-flavored applesauce. Refrigerate it to cool it down. Meanwhile, peel the apples and cut in half; remove the cores and slice the halves into slices no thicker than1/4-inch. Spread the applesauce into the lined pan so that it is 1/4 to 1/2 inch from the rim.
Heat the oven to 425 degrees. Lay the slices of apples in a circle over the filling, overlapping them slightly. When you have gone all the way around, create a second circle of apple slices inside the first. You can take your time and make sure they are all flawlessly arranged, but as much as this is a sophisticated dessert, I think it’s sort of rustic sophistication (in other words, I did not take my time). Place a few slices in the center in a pattern of some sort to give it a finished look-for instance, three slices overlapping to simulate a fleur de lis.
Melt the remaining butter and brush it over the apple slices, then sprinkle with the sugar (if the apples are very tart use all of it). Set the pan on a baking sheet and put in the oven; bake for ten minutes then lower the heat to 400 degrees. Bake an additional 25 to 35 minutes, or until the crust is a deep golden brown and the apples are tender and tinged with brown at the edges.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool for at least an hour prior to serving; it’s best warm or at room temperature. If you want a shiny finish brush the melted jam over the apple slices. Serve with a spoon of softly whipped cream or crème fraiche and a sprinkling of candied ginger.
Serves 8
Leftovers can be refrigerated, and make a good breakfast with some whole milk yogurt. Well, they do.
1 Comment
November 21, 2008 at 12:18 am
I will be putting this in my “to make” file. I can practically smell the cinnamon from here…