Rustic Apple Tarts

Hi its Alexis!  Recently (eek…about a month ago), I went to the Physical Chemistry Picnic.  It is a yearly potluck where everyone gets a chance to catch up, meet first year grad. students, and maybe even participate in a “Beer in Hand” game of kickball.  The standards are brats, burgers and beer…but I was more interested in the desserts!  There were lemon poppy seed muffins, caramel apple cupcakes and tons of cookies.  This year I kept up the tradition of bringing desserts and decided to make pumpkin cheesecake bars and rustic apple tarts (aka apple galette).  Both desserts are reminiscent of fall and got rave reviews.  Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of the bars so I guess that means we will have to bust that recipe out again some other time.  However, I got a picture of the rustic apple tarts so that can be my first post.

Quick summary, while the tarts tasted good, Lena and I were not huge fans of the dough.  It was a little bit brittle and tough to work with, which I think comes from the fact that it contained only butter and no lard or shortening.  After it baked the dough was fairly dry and not extremely flavorful.  My solution was to add some homemade caramel sauce to the tarts.  Since I am determined to be able to make pretty tarts I think I will experiment with adding some shortening to the dough next time.

Rustic Apple Tarts

Ingredients:

Crust

4/3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp white sugar
1/2 cups cold butter, cut into thin pieces
1 tsp cold water
1/4 tsp of salt

Filling

2 large apples, peeled, cored & sliced into 1/4 inch slices
1/4 cups white sugar
1/8 cups flour
1 tsp lemon juice (juice from about 1/4 of a lemon)
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp butter, melted

Makes 6 small tarts.

1. Start with the dough because it needs to chill for at least 30 minutes before rolling out and shaping the tarts.  In a small bowl sift all purpose flour, salt and sugar together.  Add the pieces of butter and rub the butter into the flour mixture with your fingers.  When all the butter is incorporated the mixture should look like a coarse meal.  Add one to two teaspoons of cold water to make the coarse meal form dough.  The amount of water is just an approximate, add one teaspoon at a time until there are no more clumps left.
2. Form the dough into 6 balls before flattening them into about 1/4 inch discs.  Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
3. While the dough is chilling, mix together all the ingredients for the filling.  I suggest mixing all the ingredients but the flour together first and then sprinkle that in and mix well.
4. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F and cover a baking sheet with parchment paper.
5. On a floured surface with a lightly floured rolling pin, roll out each dough discs into circles that are about 1/8 inch thick.  After the dough is rolled out carefully move it to the parchment paper on the baking sheet before filling and shaping the tart.  I ended up using my pastry scraper after destroying several attempts.
6. Once on the baking sheet, fill each tart and fold up the edges carefully so that there are no tears in the dough.  If the dough tears just pinch it shut and use a little butter to soften up the dough in that area.
7. Brush each tart with melted butter and bake for about 3 minutes before turning down the oven to 325 degrees F for about 5-7 more minutes.  Will be done when the apples are soft and the crust is golden.

Again, the tart dough was a bit difficult to manipulate but overall everyone at the picnic thought they were tasty and a little caramel sauce is a great addition to the flaky pastry.  These tarts are an easy and quick individual dessert!