Day 33 - Apple Crostata

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Today is the last Saturday in October and it is SNOWING! Not just flurrying either, there are a good few inches on the ground. Anyways, I decided I'm not going to let that stop me from making a delicious fall dessert! I am making an apple crostata [which is kind of like a free form tart] and fortunately I was able to get out to the farm to get some apples before the snow started.

I've seen crostata's made by some of my favorite Food Network chefs before but I have never tried one myself. While it is similar to an apple pie or apple crisp, the recipe calls for homemade dough so I was excited to try that.

I started out with the dough because it has to rest in the refrigerator for at least an hour. The dough consists of flour, sugar, salt, butter and ice water. The dough came together quickly in the food processor and I let it rest in the refrigerator while I prepared the rest of the ingredients.

I started by peeling and slicing 5 apples including a macintosh, a macun, a golden delicious and an empire [I'm a big believer in using a variety of apples when baking]. The apples are tossed with some orange zest and set aside. The next step is to make a little crumble [also in the food processor] using butter, flour, sugar, cinnamon and salt.

Finally, when the dough was ready, I rolled it out into a large circular shape [sort of] and started filling the center with the apples, making sure to leave a border of dough along the edges. I sprinkled the crumbs over the apples and folded in the extra dough to create a crostata.

The crostata baked for a good 45 minutes at 350 even though the recipe only called for about 20-25 minutes. It looked good though when it came out - the dough was nice and golden brown[and made the whole house smell amazing].

Can't wait to try this tonight! Stay tuned for next time!

***Ok I just looked at the recipe again and I realized it should have baked at 450!! NOT 350!! Still haven't tried this yet but I wonder if that changes the taste at all…. yikes! This might have to be a re-do!