baby rambutan

from Baking with Julia, with baker Leslie Mackie.  to use up some of the half bushel of tart apples we picked.  at least the kids love munching on fresh apples, whew.
it’s easy! first make a flaky pastry, chill, then make the apple mush compote, slice even more apples for topping while you melt the butter, then assemble everything. recipes follow!

flaky pastry:

1 & 1/3 cups all purpose flour

1/2 tsp. kosher salt

4 tbsps. unsalted butter

3 tbsps. vegetable shortening

3-4 tbsps. ice water

in a large deep bowl cut butter into the flour and salt using a pastry blender or two knives. sprinkle in 3 tbsps. cold water and combine with a wooden spoon or your hands until mixture forms a ball, adding the 4th tbsp. of water, 1 tsp. at a time if necessary.

flatten the dough into a disc, wrap in plastic then chill at least 30 minutes.

meanwhile preheat oven to 400F. roll out dough into an 11 inch round then fit into a(Betty Crocker recipe) a 10 inch tart pan with a removable bottom. fold in the excess sides of dough to build up the sides. cut a piece of parchment paper to fit over the bottom of the crust, place pie weights, then blind bake for around 20 minutes till golden brown. cool slightly and remove the paper and weights.

set aside to cool on a rack.

apple compote:

preheat oven to 375F. peel, core and slice 6 apples in a bowl that has about 3 tsps. lemon juice, and toss them around. add a pinch of cinnamon, and nutmeg, 3/4 cup of sugar, 1 tbsp. of flour, and 1/2 cup of fresh bread crumbs (i made by chopping finely two slices of de-crusted white bread.) spread out in a jelly-roll pan and bake until soft and juices are released, about 25 minutes. pour into a bowl and mash with a potato masher or a large spoon. leave it a bit chunky and not too mushy. cool slightly.

topping and assembly:

slice 3-4 tart baking apples about 1/8 inch thick into a bowl with a tablespoon of lemon juice (to discourage discoloration and browning). melt 2 tbsps. of unsalted butter and have ready 1 & 1/2 tsps. of sugar.

spread out compote into cooled pastry until almost level with the top within a quarter inch. arrange decoratively on top of the apple compote (you can tell i don’t have a steady hand or a designer’s eye–it’s quite “rustic”).

brush the melted butter generously on top of the sliced apples, and sprinkle with the sugar.

bake in preheated 375F oven for 25 minutes or until edges of apples get dark brown. let stand 10 minutes before slicing.

everyone liked it, especially #2son who had it “a la mode” with a scoop of pistachio ice cream, of all things. he assures me it is fine.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 13th, 2006 at 9:44 pm and is filed under breakfast, sweets for my sweets. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.