Rustic Apple Tarts

I had chosen a particularly hot day to make these free form apple tarts (not that it's ever not hot here). Ohhhhhh what a mess. With all that butter on my hands as I was handling the dough, I only managed to snap a photo of the final product.

When I made these, I had only four small granny smith apples on hand, which explains the sad, tiny 'open face' of the tarts. If you stick to the recipe and use about 2 lbs. of apples, you'd get a better dough-to-apple ratio. The tarts still tasted great, though! :)

Rustic Apple Tarts
adapted from the vanilla bean blog

Yields 6 tarts.

Tart Dough
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons butter, cold, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
4 oz cream cheese, cold, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 - 3 tablespoons ice water

In a food processor, pulse flour, sugar and salt until combined. Add in the butter and cream cheese pieces, and pulse until mixture resembles small pebbles (about 10-12 pulses).

Turn mixture into a bowl. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon ice water over mixture. Use a spatula to distribute water into the mixture until a small portion of the dough holds together when squeezed (mixture will look dry even after liquid is added). Mine looked "sticky", probably from the butter sweating away in the heat LOL! Add up to 2 tablespoons ice water if needed. I used only 1 tablespoon.

Turn dough onto work surface and press dough together into a cohesive ball, then flatten into a rough disk. Cut dough into 6 equal pieces, shaping each piece into 3 inch disks. Cover disks with plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, about 30 minutes.

Apple Filling
1 1/4 lbs. granny smith apples (about 3 medium), peeled, cored and sliced into 1/4-inch slices
1 1/4 lbs. gala apples (about 3 medium), peeled, cored and sliced into 1/4-inch slices
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons sugar, for sprinkling

Combine first five ingredients in a bowl. Let sit while you assemble the tarts.

Assembly
Preheat oven to 200°C. Adjust one oven rack to highest position, and another to the lowest. Remove dough from fridge, one at a time, and roll out disks into 6-inch circles. If you work slow like me, you should put the rolled disks back into the fridge to keep the butter from melting.

When you're done, arrange the 6 disks equally onto two parchment paper lined baking trays. Arrange 1 cup apple slices onto each disk, leaving about 1 inch border of dough. Fold the edges of the dough over the apple filling, pleating the dough to fit snugly around the apples. With cupped hands, gently press dough to reinforce shape and compact apples. Brush the crusts with water, and sprinkle the remaining 2 tablespoons sugar.

Bake tarts until pale golden brown, about 15 minutes. Rotate trays, and bake for an additional 15 minutes, or until deep golden brown and apples are tender. Cool on trays for 5 minutes before transferring to a rack to cool further. Enjoy with vanilla ice cream, or on its own!

I was left with pools of butter on my baking trays when I was done baking. Not too sure if that's normal or maybe because I didn't start the baking process with a high enough temperature. I'll try poking around the web for an answer to my baking anomaly.