My Friend Lynn’s Rustic Apple Cranberry TartFebruary 19, 2016
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.
Ingredients
- 1¾ + ⅛ cups all-purpose flour
- ¼ + ⅛ tsp salt
- 9 tbsp unsalted butter cold (Use Pareve margarine to make this a Pareve crust - I use Earth's Organics All Natural margarine)
- 3 tbsp vegetable shortening cold, preferably trans fat-free (I use Earth's Organices trans-fat free shortening)
- 4½-6 tbsp ice water
- ⅓ cup sugar
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 3 Granny Smith apples large
- ⅓-½ cup cranberries fresh or frozen
- ½ cup dried cranberries
- 4 tbsp flour
- 1 egg white mixed with a little water
- 1½ tbsp sugar
- ½ tbsp ground cinnamon
Instructions
- In a bowl, sift together flour, sugar, ½ tbsp 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 4½ tbsp ice water and pulse gently until JUST incorporated. <strong>Do not overmix.</strong>
- Squeeze a small handful: if it doesn't hold together, add more ice water, ½ tbsp 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 ⅓ cup sugar, 4 tbsp flour, 1 tsp cinnamon. Add apple slices, fresh cranberries and dried cranberries. Toss and coat with flour/sugar/cinnamon mixture.
- Preheat oven to 375° Fahrenheit.
- After dough is chilled, roll out dough VERY thinly (about ⅛″) 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. <strong>Dough will be thin. Don't worry.</strong>
- Fold edges of pastry inward up around edges of apple mixture.
- Brush pastry with beaten egg white/water mixture.
- Pick up entire sheet of parchment with the tart on it and place on heavy-duty baking sheet.
- Bake at 375° 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 confectioner's sugar right before serving.
Notes
I made several changes to Lynn’s original recipe:
I increased the pastry recipe by half 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 1½ tbsp sugar to the dough.
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.