My friend Lynn Burton is a wonderful baker! She loves to present her friends with wonderful gifts from her kitchen. I had this delicious apple cranberry tart once at her house and she graciously shared the recipe with me.
I love it because you can quickly make the pastry dough in the food processor and you can substitute whatever fruit you would like for the filling.
I made several changes to Lynn’s original recipe:
I increased the pastry recipe by 1/2 to make sure that there was enough dough for the tart when you roll it out and I used both fresh (or frozen) cranberries and dried cranberries in the recipe.
This pasty dough can be used for a sweet or savory dough. For a sweet dough add 1.5 TBS sugar to the dough.
Ingredients:
- 1 and 3/4 cups plus 1/8 cup of all-purpose flour
- 1/4 tsp plus 1/8 tsp salt
- 9 TBS cold unsalted butter (use Pareve margarine to make this a Pareve crust – I use Earth’s Organics All Natural margarine)
- 3 TBS cold vegetable shortening (preferably trans fat-free – I use Earth’s Organices trans-fat free shortening)
- 4.5 – 6 TBS ice water
- For this apple tart, 1.5 TBS sugar plus 1/2 TBS cinnamon
- 3 LARGE Granny Smith apples
- 1/3-1/2 cup fresh (or frozen cranberries)
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 4 TBS flour
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 egg white mixed with a little water
Directions:
- In a bowl, sift together flour, sugar, 1/2 TBS cinnamon and salt. Pour into the bowl of a food processor.
- With a short dough blade, blend in butter (or Pareve margarine) and shortening until most of mixture resembles course meal with some small (roughly pea-size) lumps.
- Drizzle evenly with 4.5 TBS ice water and pulse gently until JUST incorporated. DO NOT OVERMIX.
- Squeeze a small handful: if it doesn’t hold together, add more ice water, 1/2 TBS at a time, pulsing until just incorporated, then test again. (Do not overwork or pastry will be tough).
- Turn mixture out of bowl unto lightly floured surface and divide into 2 or 3 portions. With the heel of your hand, smear each portion once or twice in a forward motion to help distribute the fat. Gather dough together with a bench scraper and press into a ball, then flatten into a 5-inch disc.
- Wrap dough tightly in “Press and Seal” (or plastic wrap) and refrigerate until firm – at least one hour (but can be done overnight). You can also freeze dough until needed. Defrost overnight in the fridge.
- Makes enough dough for a 9″ or 10″ shell.
- While dough is chilling, prepare apple-cranberry mixture:
- Peel and core apples and slice each one into 16’s.
- In a bowl, mix together 1/3 cup sugar, 4 TBS flour, 1 tsp cinnamon. Add apple slices, fresh cranberries and dried cranberries. Toss and coat with flour/sugar/cinnamon mixture.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
- After dough is chilled, roll out dough VERY thinly (about 1/8″) between two sheets of parchment paper to a very large round (approximately 12 inches in diameter). Trim edges with a knife to make round.
- Mound filling in centre of dough – leaving about 2-3 inches all around edges empty. DOUGH WILL BE THIN – DON’T WORRY!
- Fold edges of pastry inward up around edges of apple mixture.
- Brush pastry with beaten egg white/water mixture.
- Sprinkle pastry with sugar. The tart will look mostly like apples, like this:
Rustic Apple Cranberry Tart prior to baking - Pick up entire sheet of parchment with the tart on it and place on heavy-duty baking sheet. Bake at 375 degree Fahrenheit for approximately 30-35 minutes until done. (I think sometimes it really needs 40 minutes or more – you’ll have to keep your eye on it.) The pastry will be lightly browned and the apples will be cooked through.
- Sprinkle with confectioners sugar right before serving.
- Can serve with vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, frozen yogurt, tofutti or just on it’s own.
- Can also substitute peaches, plums, pears or other fruit for the apples and craisins.
