Tuesday, November 17, 2009

TWD: Cran Apple Tart



The recipe for "Cran Apple Crisps" (baked out of order as all my Nov. TWD recipes are) was chosen by The Repressed Pastry Chef. Check out her blog for the original recipe. I happened to put my own twist on the crisp, making it into a tart instead of a spoon dessert. I'll take any excuse to use my 9" fluted tart pan. I love that thing. A simple all-purpose pie crust filled with Dorie's apple cranberry filling and topped with her crisp topping. Because the tart pan is so shallow I used only about 2/3 of the recipe (2.5 apples instead of 4, the rest scaled accordingly). I froze the (delicious) extra streusel in a ZipLock container for easy to throw together fruit crisps or muffin toppings in a flash.



When I first put this into the oven the filling was piled so high it looked like an anthill, but thankfully the apples cooked down and in the end it was just the perfect height. Note: this bubbles a lot! I should've known better and put foil under my pan to save myself a lot of sticky puddles in my oven. Served at room temperature the next day it was even better than hot out of the oven. It was a beautiful medley of sweet and tart with contrasting textures from fresh and dried cranberries and bits of coconut in the topping. Nobody could guess there was coconut but when I told them their reaction was: "ahhh.... so THAT'S what it is". They knew something in there tasted different (in a good way!) but couldn't put their finger on it.

10 comments:

Amanda said...

What a fabulous idea, and it's perfect! I made the cran apple crisp this week too, so good! But I think I'll cut the sugar back a bit next time :)

Pamela said...

What a very pretty tart this makes. Great idea!

Lillian said...

So pretty!

Megan said...

What a great idea to make a tart. I don't use my pan nearly enough....

TIA @ BUTTERCREAMBARBIE said...

I LOVE my tart pan. I try to use it as much as possible :)

zurin said...

mmmm that looks delicious and pretty :)

Bergamot said...

Looks delicious

Anonymous said...

Yum! A crisp in a tart shell sounds so delicious!

Susan said...

Oh, your tart looks beautiful! I am making this recipe next week, and I can't wait!

BonBon Rose Girls Kristin said...

Mmmmmmmmm, it's just gorgeous and looks most delicious!