Tuesday, June 9, 2009

TWD Parisian Apple Tartlettes

Posted by BAKE-EN at 3:47 PM



Jessica of My Baking Heart picked Parisian Apple Tartlettes as this week's TWD "recipe". It's hard to call it a recipe because you're supposed to buy puff pastry, cut it into a 4" round, and top it with half an apple and a bit of butter and sugar and bake. For a Dorie Greenspan recipe, this is as "semi-homemade" as she gets.

Instead of buying puff pastry, I decided to make a dough that acts like a quick puff pastry. Essentially mix equal parts butter, cream cheese, flour and a pinch of salt in a mixer till a dough forms. Chill then roll and use in place of puff pastry. I like making this dough because it's so easy, gets nice layering and I usually have all the ingredients on hand to make it. The dough works best with an overnight rest, but due to time constraints I had to make mine an hour and a half before baking. Even so, I was a little nervous that it would grow out of control, so I docked each tart shell and then topped with the apples.




Once they came out of the oven, I realized that docking them was a bit overzealous. They didn't rise as much as I expected them to, but the dough was still lovely.

The resulting tartelettes were okay. I baked them for an extra 5 minutes because the apples were still leaning towards raw, but that still wasn't enough time. Technically there was no way I could have baked the apples through and not overcooked the dough. Due to its simplicity, I think this recipe has a lot of potential. However, the apples should be sliced thinner, or the chunks should be par cooked before baking. This was so easy to make though, I'll definitely play around with it again.


4 comments on "TWD Parisian Apple Tartlettes"

Pamela on June 9, 2009 at 8:09 PM said...

I was thinking that the pieces were too big and thick for my liking, so I sliced mine up. Can't beat the simplicity of this one, though! Nice job.

Unknown on June 9, 2009 at 8:22 PM said...

I agree about the apples - I'd probably cut smaller chunks next time. Love the dough you used, it looks terrific!

Audrey on June 9, 2009 at 10:02 PM said...

I used peaches, and had so much trouble cutting around the pit that I ended up with small pieces! Your dough looks wonderful (have to confess that tho I liked these tarts, I didn't like paying for the puff!)

Anonymous said...

I think your homemade puff pastry dough rose quite a bit! It looks fantastic in the Parisian Apple Tartlet! And I love the fact that cream cheese is added into your pastry dough, yum! My apple wasn't baked all the way through either...

 

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