I was planning on making chocolate panna cotta. Wait, no...I actually thought dessert would be a soufflé. Or was it going to be a strawberry pie? So how in the world did we end up making a simple apple tart for our Valentine's Day dessert?
Well, we had already tried a blood orange-campari-caramel chocolate bar and then went and scarfed some cinnamon jelly beans (of all things), so simplicity won out in the end. That and the fact that the supposed strawberry compote in the freezer was really beet broth led us to throw together this super-simple, no cinnamon apple tart.
1/2 cup roasted and salted pistachios
1 cup all-purpose flour
pinch of sugar
1/3 cup of canola oil
ice cold water
Place the dry ingredients into a food processor and blend until pistachios are throughly broken down. While the processor is still running add the oil. Add the cold water one tablespoon at a time until the dough comes together into a ball. Cover and rest dough in the fridge for at least thirty minutes.
Apple Filling:
*7 Granny Smith apples (peeled, cut away from core)
juice from 1 lemon
1/4 cup cane sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
pinch salt
Using a mandoline or food processor, slice apples very thin. Toss apples with remaining (very few!) ingredients.
Roll out and press crust into a tart pan. Par-bake the crust for 8 minutes, and then fill the crust with the apples; press them down with your palm. Bake for another 30-45 minutes until crust is crisp and the top later of apple has browned. Serve with vanilla-vodka whipped cream.
*The key to a tasty tart is to use really good tasting apples. We used organic Granny Smith but this would be great with Pink Lady as well.
