Free-Form Apple Or Pear Tart
- Total Time
- 1 hour
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 1¼cups all-purpose flour
- Pinch salt
- 3tablespoons sugar
- 9tablespoons cold butter
- 1egg yolk
- 3 or 4medium apples, preferably Golden Delicious, or pears, peeled, cored and very thinly sliced
- 2tablespoons brown sugar
- Crème fraîche, sweetened
- Whipped cream or vanilla ice cream
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Preparation
- Step 1
Combine flour, salt and sugar in a food processor; pulse once or twice. Cut 8 tablespoons butter into chunks, and add it and egg yolk to flour mixture. Process until butter and flour are blended, about 10 seconds. Turn mixture into a bowl, and add cold water, a tablespoon at a time, stirring after each addition. After adding 3 or 4 tablespoons you should be able to gather mixture into a ball; wrap ball in plastic, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour (or freeze for about 15 minutes).
- Step 2
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Roll or pat dough into a 10-inch circle; it can be quite crude in shape. Place it on a cookie or pizza sheet, preferably nonstick. Arrange fruit slices on top, right out to edges; make the pattern attractive, if you like. Sprinkle with brown sugar. Cut remaining butter into bits, and top fruit with it.
- Step 3
Bake until crust is nicely browned and fruit is tender, 20 to 30 minutes. Remove, and serve warm or at room temperature, with crème fraîche, whipped cream or ice cream.
Private Notes
Comments
Roll the dough directly onto parchment paper and transfer to baking sheet without worrying.
If you make a successful crust and have nicely flavored apples, it's totally worth the effort. I always put the dough directly on a baking stone to roll out. Otherwise, it is difficult to transfer - like delicate shortbread dough. It gives it a nice touch to brush the edges of the crust with egg whites (hate to waste them.) I also brush the center of the crust with apricot preserves with a glob in the center, and then top the apples with crushed almonds which brown and deepen flavor.
Pear, pear, pear! Not hair!
Disappointing. Looked great but Honeycrisp apples dried out, and it was a bland and dry dessert with an undercooked crust.
I was shocked at how delicious this was. I needed to use up a pile of pears that all ripened at once, and while I like pears as fruit, I was never enthusiastic about pear desserts. But: I seasoned the pears liberally with brown sugar, squeezed on a good bit of lemon juice and dotted very liberally with butter before baking, and this was just divine. The perfect thing you can throw together with almost no ingredients, and wow guests with after dinner.
This was a hit. Easy and delicious. I did a mix of apples - granny smith and gala. I added a sprinkling of cardamom, squeezed a lime over the apple slices before layering them and used coconut sugar. I also used Bob's Red Mill 1:1 gf flour. Fantastic.
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