Easy Desserts: Rustic Apple Tart

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I love this rustic apple tart because it’s so forgiving. You don’t need to fuss about it. It has quickly become one of my favorite easy desserts.

Jackie from WNEP’s Home & Backyard recently gave me a challenge. Come up with a recipe inspired by the 17th century for an upcoming episode.

I immediately started researching colonial recipes. Just what did the early colonists eat back in the 1600’s? One thing that kept coming up were pies. They ate a lot of pies. Meat pies. Veggie pies. Fruit pies. The reason being, they were easy to eat and they were baked in their own vessel — the pie shell.

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I decided I would make a Rustic Apple Tart for the segment. I learned a lot from my research. Here were some interesting facts I learned about the 17th century:

While pies were very common, the colonists rarely ate the dough. It was usually very thick and very hard.
Pie shells were called “coffins” — sounds appetizing, doesn’t it?!
The only apples native to America in the 1600’s were crab apples. The apples that we eat today were brought over from Europe.
The first apple orchards didn’t produce much fruit because there were no honey bees in colonial America. They had to be brought over from Europe too.
17th century apple pies were seasoned with cloves, saffron and rosewater.

Interesting, right? I thought so.

I took the concept of a rustic apple tart and modernized it a but. I traded the saffron, cloves and rosewater for brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. And, I made the crust light and flaky, so you could eat it. Jackie and I had a great time making these Rustic Apple Tarts. They really are easy desserts to whip up.

Easy Desserts: Rustic Apple Tart

Compliments of It’s a Keeper
www.itisakeeper.com

Crust Ingredients:

3 cups flour
12 Tbsp cold butter
1/2 cup shortening
1 tsp salt
1/3 cup ice water

Instructions:

Combine flour, butter, shortening and salt in a food processor.
Slowly drizzle in ice water.
Pulse in food processor until dough forms a ball.
Remove dough from processor, divide into two equal parts and wrap each in plastic wrap.
Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Apple Filling Ingredients:

4 apples, peeled, cored and sliced
3 Tbsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp flour
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
Pinch of salt
2 Tbsp butter, melted

Instructions:

Combine apples, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in a large bowl. Stir to combine.
Roll out one disc of refrigerated pastry to about 10″ in diameter. It doesn’t have to be perfect. In fact, imperfections make it more rustic.
Transfer pastry to a parchment lined baking sheet.
Pour apple mixture into middle of pastry, leaving about 1 inch around the entire circle.
Fold up the edges around the filling.
Brush edge of pastry and filling with melted butter.
Bake at 400 degrees for 25-30 minutes, or until crust is golden brown and apples have softened.
Allow tart to cool slightly before removing from baking sheet.

For more recipe inspiration, be sure to check out these pages on It’s a Keeper: