I was inspired by Mrs. G’s recent post with her apple tart. It looked so good I had to give it a try. After searching the internet for recipes I found one for a
Rustic French apple tart.
The author of the recipe did a great job with photos and directions. I was a bit perplexed however as he stated this recipe made a “rustic” tart such as the common French person would make in their farm kitchen. The author then went on to use a food processor to make the crust. What is so rustic about a food processor?
Needless to say I did the crust by hand (no processor for me). Rustic should mean rustic and not just in how it looks. I did change the sugar (reduced as I hate things too sweet).
The recipe also called for putting on a apricot jam glaze over the fruit once the tart was baked. I had no apricot jam in the house but plenty of home made peach jam from my peach trees. It should work? Then I chickened out and decided to sub with a honey glaze. I heated honey in the microwave until hot and watery. Brushed it on with a pastry brush. It made the fruit shine and thickened as it cooled. Worked great and tasted mighty fine.
Glad I still had some of my precious NW Greening apples left as they worked superb for making this rustic tart.
I always approve when bakers are willing to diverge from the strict map of printed recipes. We reduce sugar in just about everything: date nut bread, pumpkin pie filling, fruit pie fillings, whatever. I think that historically most bakers just had to make do with what they could lay their hands on.
When making a tarte tatin a few years ago, I put the apple peel and cores in a small saucepan, threw in a little water, sugar and cinnamon, and cooked it covered. Then I poured the colorful syrup (forgetting now which red skin apple) over the tart after it was baked. Not too shabby.
Looking forward to doing this with Redfield, a red-fleshed apple, quite tart and keeps shape baked, when next the opportunity comes my way.
I like what you did with the crust, as the tarte tatin had crust only on the bottom of the pie plate and top of the tarte when it was inverted. Rusticity in this case appears to be making a tart without benefit of a pie dish in which to bake it. Nice job!
We have several older cookbooks, and they consistently call for less sugar then the more recently published, even in a pancake recipe. I’ve had colleagues comment on the lesser sweetness of what I bring to work for birthday celebrations - but no complaints!
We think flavor trumps sweetness and err in that direction. Also, since we grind wheat on the spot, the nuttiness and natural (mild) sweetness of wheat berries contributes to the overall result. The somewhat restrained use of sugar from my early boyhood works just fine, in our estimate.
I don’t grind my own wheat (flour that is three months or so old, or that has been bromated is more reliable to mix and raise than “green” flour) even though I like the flavor of fresh ground. But I agree completely about the sweetness of whole wheat.
My whole grain bread recipe for five 1 1/2 pound loaves gets 1/2 cup of molasses, so less than 2 tablespoons/loaf, and much of that is fermented out.
Here is one that is soot oven.
We call it the Norman pie.
You place your pieces of apples on the dough.
You mix in a salad bowl:
3 eggs
6 tablespoons sugar
25 cl of liquid cream.
Optional, you can add Calvados (alcohol), vanilla flavor. …
The mixture is poured on apples and in an oven.
2.5 Tenths of a liter, if I am not mistaken. Our Pyrex measuring cups have metric lines on the other side. Most measures for items of this sort are not critical - some variance plus or minus still makes something worth bringing to the table.
