Thin crust with caramelized cinnamon apples makes for an incredible dessert. Adapted from an Alice Waters’ recipe.
Ingredients:
Dough:
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 t sugar
1/4 t salt
6 T cold butter
3 tablespoons +/- cold water
Filling:
5 tablespoons maple or cane sugar
2 – 2½ pounds firm and tart apples
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Glaze:
peels and cores from apples
½ cup sugar for glaze
Combine dough ingredients together in a mixing bowl and, adding butter a couple of tablespoons at a time, use your fingers to work it in until the mixture is the consistency of cornmeal.
Add cold water, a few drops at a time, until dough just holds together. It should not be sticky or too dry.
Roll dough into a ball and then squash it down into a 5” disk. Wrap and refrigerate for at least half and hour.
Mix the cinnamon with the rest of the 5 T of sugar.
While your dough is chilling, peel and core the apples. Place peels and cores into a small saucepan so that you can use them to prepare the glaze while your tart is cooking. Set aside.
Thinly slice the apples, then set aside.
When the dough has chilled, remove from refrigerator.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Line bottom of a large tart pan or pizza stone with a disc of parchment paper.
Using a dusting of flour, roll out dough until it covers the bottom of the pan. There should be a bit of excess all around for a slightly elevated edge which you can pinch together with your fingertips as you go around.
Starting just inside the edge, lay an overlapping circle of apple slices. For the next round, make a circle slightly overlapping the first one and lay your slices in the opposite direction (picture parenthesis going in one way and then the other). Repeat in concentric circles until you reach the center or your tart where you end by making a central pinwheel of apple slices.
Melt 2 tablespoons of butter. “Paint” butter on all the apples using a pastry brush. Sprinkle the entire tart as well as the edge with cinnamon sugar.
Place in the middle of the preheated oven and bake for 20 minutes at 400 degrees and another 20 minutes at 375 degrees. The tart should be browned and may even have some small blackened bits. When done, remove from oven.
While the tart is baking, make the glaze by adding ½ cup of granulated sugar to the peels and cores., and covering. Simmer over very low heat for approximately 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Liquid should begin to thicken. Strain through cheesecloth.
After tart is removed from oven, “paint” glaze over warm apples.
Serve warm with whipped/ice cream or a wedge of really good, aged cheddar.
