Apple Slab Tart

Tis the season for apples. In fact, it’s that in between time when you can scarcely find other fruit since the summer fruits have passed their shelf life and pears are beginning to show up with a sprinkling of bananas. This is the opportunity to make delicious things with those juicy apples that will make your heart sing and your nose rejoice with the aromas emanating from your kitchen.

This is not a pie, this is a big tart which you bake in a jelly roll pan or a rimmed baking sheet, and you are not putting in tons of apples. Just the opposite, you are layering them in one layer on your pie pastry dough which you don’t have to pre-bake (yay) and you get a bite of apple to crisp and crunchy pie pastry in every bite. You cut this into squares (be generous, the crowds will clamor and even if it’s just a small group, still be generous!) and if you wanna gild the lily, add whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. I stuck with the tart itself since we had dined well, but nobody turned down a piece of the tart. And maybe just maybe DH had a second piece…

Since peeling and slicing those apples take time, first do the pastry for the tart since you wanna refrigerate it for about a half hour. If you do this, I promise it’ll be much much easier to handle and will bake up properly.

So, take out your food processor. (If you don’t have one, this will work by hand with a pastry cutter or two knives but it’s a lot more work). Keep your margarine/butter cold from the fridge and cut into cubes.

I use 200 grams of marg for this which is 7/8 cup or a scant cup of margarine. It gives you a lovely dough. Now put the flour and salt in processor first, whirl for a sec and put cubes of marg on top like so:

Pulse together in processor till it looks like small crumbs

Add your egg and cold water and vinegar (or vodka) and pulse just till the mixture forms a ball.

Since you don’t wanna overhandle the dough, this is fine and you scoop (carefully) the dough into a disk and pat into a circle and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 30 minutes while you are preparing the apples.

Peel the apples and slice (easiest in a mandoline slicer which gives you even slices but you can use a sharp knife as well), removing core and place in a bowl with lemon juice. Toss till coated and add flour, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and a pinch of salt. Toss again till coated. Set aside.

Remove dough from fridge, preheat oven to 350 F and peel plastic wrap off bottom of dough placing dough bottom on parchment paper as above. If you refrigerate for the 30 minutes, you shouldn’t need flour to roll out your dough. You are sandwiching the dough between the parchment paper and plastic wrap (add another piece of it as you roll out dough so top is covered completely with wrap), and roll out between with rolling pin till it’s rectangular in shape and fits into your jelly roll or rimmed baking pan. You lift the dough with the parchment paper (without plastic wrap) right into the pan. If need be, press the dough gently up the sides of the pan partway. Then sprinkle with breadcrumbs just to cover the pastry lightly. Don’t skip this part, it absorbs excess juices from the apples and prevents sogginess.

Now take your bowl of apples, and (I put on gloves for this part) remove from bowl and leave whatever juices remain in bowl in the bowl. No soggy crust for us! Place the slices of apples in overlapping lines on the pastry.

Bake the tart for about 40 minutes or till apples are nearly fully done, remove from oven and brush the apricot jam (not preserves or it won’t brush properly) over all the rows and place back in oven for about 5 more minutes till apples are browned and juicy looking.

Remove and place on wire rack to cool. The crust is crispy and the apples tender. Delicious and smells like fall!