Authors: David Lebovitz
Ready for Dessert (17 page)
VARIATION:
Poaching the quince before assembling the tart will turn them a lovely ruby-red color and bring out even more flavor: In a medium saucepan, bring ½ cup (100 g) sugar, 1½ cups (375 ml) water, and a 2-inch (5-cm) piece of vanilla bean, split lengthwise, stirring to dissolve the sugar, then decrease the heat to maintain a simmer.
Peel, core, and cut the quinces into eighths. Put the pieces in the saucepan, cover with a circle of parchment paper cut to fit inside the pan, and simmer gently, covered, until tender, 30 to 60 minutes. Once poached, the quince can be kept in the refrigerator in the poaching liquid for up to 1 week. When assembling the tart, tuck the poached quince pieces between the apples. The poaching liquid can be reduced in a skillet until thick and syrupy, cooled slightly, and used as a sauce, if desired.
MAKES 8 SERVINGS
A thin layer of frangipane, a rich almond pastry cream, elevates this simple, classic French dessert into something special. It’s made in the style of many French fruit tarts: thin-crusted and only lightly sweetened to let the fruit truly shine.
Americans have eagerly adopted French-inspired freeform tarts, even giving them a French name,
galette,
a word that the French generally use to describe a round, squat pastry, cookie, or buckwheat crêpe. The most famous galette is
Galette des Rois,
two disks of puff pastry filled with frangipane and eaten on Epiphany. I considered calling this dessert a
tart,
but decided against it because that term can put off people who are worried about dealing with fussy doughs and trying to achieve picture-perfect results. This pastry is intended to be rustic, and for that reason, it’s often my go-to galette. Or tart.
Speaking of tart, if your apples are particularly tart, you could sprinkle a bit more sugar on top of them before baking, but if you serve a sweet accompaniment alongside, as I usually do, additional sugar probably won’t be necessary.
6 medium apples (3 pounds/1.5 kg)
2 tablespoons (1 ounce/30 g) unsalted or salted butter, melted
4 tablespoons (60 g) granulated or coarse-crystal sugar
Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
Peel, core, and cut the apples into ½-inch (1.5-cm) slices.
Lightly flour a work surface and roll out the dough into a circle about 14 inches (36 cm) in diameter. Transfer it to the prepared baking sheet.
Smear the frangipane over the dough, leaving a 2-inch (5-cm) border. Arrange the apple slices in concentric circles over the frangipane, or simply scatter them in an even layer. Fold the border of the dough over the apples and brush the crust with some of the melted butter, then lightly brush or dribble the rest of the butter over the apples. Sprinkle half of the sugar over the crust, and the remaining half over the apples.
Bake the galette until the apples are tender and the crust has browned, about 1 hour. Slide the galette off the parchment paper and onto a wire rack.
SERVING:
Serve warm or at room temperature. You can drizzle the galette with warm honey or glaze it with strained apricot jam, thinned with just enough water to make it spreadable.
Vanilla Ice Cream
,
Cider Sabayon
or crème fraîche are all fine accompaniments.
STORAGE:
The dough can be made up to 3 days in advance and refrigerated. The tart should be served the day it’s baked.
VARIATION:
For a
NECTARINE-FRANGIPANE GALETTE
, substitute 3 large nectarines (1¾ pounds/ 795 g), pitted and cut in ½-inch (1.5-cm) slices, for the apples. (If you want the nectarines to have a very pronounced flavor in the tart, decrease the amount of frangipane; you can use as little as one-half the quantity, or about ½ cup/125 ml). Arrange the necctarine slices in barely overlapping concentric circles. You can use peeled peaches in place of the nectarines.
MAKES ONE 10-INCH (25-CM) TART; 8 SERVINGS
This is an unusual tart. Not just for its brilliant red color, but for how it takes people by surprise when it’s turned out onto a serving platter. Be sure to plan in advance, as the apples really benefit from marinating in the red wine for at least one day, although two days of steeping gives them the best color. You’ll find the tart worth the wait.
8 firm medium apples (4 pounds/2 kg), such as Pippin, Granny Smith, or Golden Delicious
¾ cup (150 g) sugar
1 bottle (750 ml) fruity red wine, such as Zinfandel or Merlot
Peel, core, and cut the apples into ¾-inch (2-cm) slices. In a large nonreactive bowl or container, toss the apple slices with the sugar. Pour the red wine over, cover, and refrigerate for 24 to 48 hours. During that time, stir the mixture a few times so that all the slices get evenly saturated with the wine.
Drain the red wine from the apples into a 10-inch (25-cm) nonreactive skillet (don’t use cast iron). Simmer the wine over medium-high heat until thickened and reduced to about ⅓ cup (80 ml). Remove from the heat and measure out a few tablespoons of the wine syrup into a small bowl and reserve for glazing the baked tart. Heap the apples in the skillet with the remaining wine syrup and press them down to even them out.
Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C).
Lightly flour a work surface and roll out the dough into a 12-inch (30-cm) circle. Drape the dough over the apples in the skillet and tuck the edges down between the skillet and the apples.
Bake until the pastry has browned and the apples are tender when poked with a paring knife through the pastry, about 1 hour. Let cool about 10 minutes. If there appears to be an excessive amount of liquid, carefully tilt the pan over a bowl to drain some of it off (you can reduce it to a syrupy consistency for additional sauce or glaze).
Invert a serving plate over the skillet. Wearing long oven mitts, grasp both the skillet and the plate and turn them over together, away from you, to unmold the tart. Be careful of any hot juices that may spill out! Brush the tart with the reserved wine syrup.
SERVING:
Serve warm with crème fraîche or
Vanilla Ice Cream
.
STORAGE:
The dough can be made up to 2 days ahead and refrigerated, or frozen up to 2 months. The tart should be served warm, the same day it’s made. You can make it and leave it on the serving plate, under the overturned skillet, to keep it warm for about 1 hour before serving. It can also be rewarmed in a low oven. In either case, the tart should be glazed right before it is presented.
MAKES ONE 9-INCH (23-CM) TART; 8 TO 10 SERVINGS
If you’ve never made brown butter, it’s simple. You put butter in a pan and cook it until it develops the wonderful nutty aroma for which the French named it:
beurre noisette,
or hazelnut butter. Here, custard flavored with brown butter provides a rich background for a tart filled with dark rum-spiked pears and toasted pecans.
CUSTARD
3 large eggs
¼ cup (35 g) all-purpose flour
¾ cup (150 g) granulated sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons (45 ml) dark rum
10 tablespoons (5 ounces/140 g) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
½ cup pecans (50 g), toasted and very coarsely chopped
PEARS
2 medium pears (1 pound/450 g)
2 tablespoons (30 g) packed dark or light brown sugar
1 tablespoon dark rum
To make the custard, in a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, flour, granulated sugar, salt, vanilla, and the 3 tablespoons (45 ml) rum.
In a large skillet, warm the butter over low heat. It will bubble and sizzle for a while before it settles down. Continue to cook over low heat until the butter darkens to the color of maple syrup and smells toasty but not burnt. Quickly and vigorously whisk it into the egg mixture, leaving behind any black sediment in the pan. Stir in the pecans. Refrigerate the custard mixture until chilled and thickened, about 1 hour.
To prepare the pears, peel, quarter, and core the pears, then cut them into slices ¼ inch (6 mm) thick. In a medium bowl, toss the pear slices with the brown sugar and the 1 tablespoon dark rum and let macerate for 15 minutes, tossing frequently to coat the slices.
Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C).
To assemble the tart, set the prebaked tart shell on a baking sheet. Arrange the pear slices in concentric circles in the tart shell. Pour the custard over the pears, filling the tart to the rim, but don’t overfill it.
Bake the tart on the baking sheet until browned, about 30 minutes. Let cool completely.
Remove the tart pan sides by setting the tart on an overturned bowl or other tall, wide surface (a large can of tomatoes works well). Gently press down on the outer ring and let the ring fall to the countertop. Set the tart on a flat surface. Release the tart from the pan bottom by sliding the blade of a knife between the crust and the pan bottom, then slip the tart onto a serving plate. (If it doesn’t release cleanly, simply serve the tart on the pan bottom.)
SERVING:
This tart can be served on its own or with
whipped cream
flavored with pear eau-de-vie or dark rum. I sometimes serve slices with a scribble of
Bittersweet Chocolate Sauce
or with a scoop of
Chocolate Gelato
.
STORAGE:
The custard can be made up to 3 days ahead and refrigerated. The tart is best the day it’s made, though it will keep for up to 2 days in the refrigerator. Let it come to room temperature before serving.
TIP:
To protect yourself from splatters, invert a strainer or colander over the butter while it’s browning.
MAKES ONE 9-INCH (23-CM) TART; 8 SERVINGS
I tried to explain to some French pals what a “treehugger” is, a term that we Americans jokingly use to refer to a person who participates in well-intentioned earth-saving activities. Judging from my friends’ baffled expressions, the meaning got lost in translation. There are now a few French people wandering around scratching their heads, puzzled about nutty Americans with a penchant for wrapping their arms around tree trunks.
I’m guilty of hugging a few trees myself. I read that using Brazil nuts is something positive that we can do to help sustain the rain forests, so I came up with this tart, which is packed full of them. I can’t say you’ll feel better about saving the planet if you make it, but anyone who doesn’t give it a try is, in my opinion, definitely nuts.
4 large egg yolks
1½ cups (335 g) packed light brown sugar
4 tablespoons (2 ounces/60 g) unsalted butter, melted
¼ cup (60 ml) heavy cream or whole milk
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1½ tablespoons peeled and grated fresh ginger
¼ teaspoon salt
12 large dates, pitted and quartered
1½ cups (225 g) Brazil nuts, toasted and coarsely chopped
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, brown sugar, butter, cream or milk, flour, ginger, and salt until smooth. Stir in the date pieces and Brazil nuts until combined.
Set the prebaked tart shell on a baking sheet and pour in the filling. Bake the tart on the baking sheet until the top is uniformly deep brown and the filling is set (it shouldn’t jiggle when you gently shake the tart), 35 to 40 minutes. Let cool completely.
Remove the tart pan sides by setting the tart on an overturned bowl or other tall, wide surface (a large can of tomatoes works well). Gently press down on the outer ring and let the ring fall to the countertop. Set the tart on a flat surface. Release the tart from the pan bottom by sliding the blade of a knife between the crust and the pan bottom, then slip the tart onto a serving plate. (If it doesn’t release cleanly, simply serve the tart on the pan bottom.)
SERVING:
Serve with
whipped cream
or a drizzle of
Bittersweet Chocolate Sauce
spiked with rum.
STORAGE:
The filling can be made up to 4 days in advance and refrigerated.
VARIATION:
To add coconut flavor to this tart, substitute 1½ cups (340 g) softened or grated palm sugar (available in Asian markets) for the brown sugar and replace the cream or whole milk with Thai coconut milk.