This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie was selected by my buddy Jeannette of The Whimsical Cupcake: tourtely apple tart. A what? Yeah, that’s pretty much what I said :) According to Dorie, tourte is the French word for a covered tart. So it’s sort of like a skinny pie – the top and bottom crust made from Dorie’s sweet tart dough, which is almost cookie-like here. The filling for this tart is a really fragrant and delicious chunky homemade applesauce – apple are cooked down with brown sugar and then tossed with nutty browned butter and vanilla (plus raisins and pinches of both cinnamon and salt in my case).
I couldn’t be bothered to do the math to figure out how to scale this recipe back so I made the full size 9-inch tart. The recipe is a fair amount of work, but it can be spread out over an afternoon. Individually the components could even be made a few days ahead of time and assembled/baked at the last minute. The filling calls for tart-sweet apples and I had no idea what that meant (seriously, is there an apple cheat sheet somewhere?) so I used golden delicious. The other thing that gave me pause in this recipe? I kept rereading the instructions (I even had Shane read them to make sure I wasn’t missing something) looking for the place where Dorie told us to cut steam holes in the top crust before baking the tart. It wasn’t there so I didn’t, and things turned out fine. I cut little leaves from the dough scraps for the top because I thought it needed something.
I don’t think I’ve baked with apples since last fall, so this was a welcome treat here. Any time I can have an apple pie-like treat without making pie dough I’m happy. A definite repeat here! Many thanks to Jeannette for hosting this week! She’ll share the recipe on her blog today, or you can find it on pages 306-307 of Baking: From My Home to Yours.
Lemon Bars
Glazed Grapefruit Cake
Orange Sherbet
Meyer Lemon Pound Cake
Oh yours looks way nice compared to my dark circles he he. Back to the lab for me! Nicely done and thank you for sharing, once again, beautiful photos Tracey.
I may have to eat this one and bake later for sharing.
AmyRuth
That’s a fine looking tart…love what you did with the top decoration.
The crust sounds so good, and the finished product is just beautiful. I just tried googling for an apple cheat sheet for you and realized there’s just way too much info out there for me to give you just one page. I’m guessing that you did okay because the tart looks delicious.
You are such a wonderful food artist…beautiful tourte (new term for me :))
looks nice, love the added leaves. I’m so into all things spring that I couldn’t bring myself to buy apples at the store (but somehow ended up making a maple pie instead!).
This looks so good Tracey–I didn’t get to it this week but I can tell I will in the very near future.
I just made half the dough and winged it for small tarts. I made the entire amount of filling and thus have some left in the refrigerator. Your tart sure looks perfect!
This cake is absolutely AMAZING LOOKING! Could I go for a slice right now!
Your apple tart is gorgeous!!
I love the little leaves on top…so pretty compared to my gashes! I felt strange making an apple dessert this week, but I loved it!
Gorgeous, I love those leaf cut-outs!!
Ciao Tracy ! i’m confused now because I remembered about the hole….Your tart is gorgeous as you are spoiling us !
@Natalia – You’re absolutely right! Dorie did mention the hole in the beginning of the recipe. I was looking for it at the end when the assembly takes place. Ooops! Luckily it turned out ok regardless of my ability to follow directions
This is just the cutest tart! Apples are totally on my mind right now and this will be the perfect thing to make first. Thanks!
The Apple Tart was so delicious.
Loved it so much I had seconds. The crust was nice and light, not too heavy.
Great Job!
Great looking tourte! I will have to try this soon.
Glad you didn’t scale back the recipe! Great flavor and texture. The decoration on top was neat too, really added to the presentation!
Tracey this looks perfect! Im making mine tomorrow!! Im glad you enjoyed it!
Love the decorations on the top. They make such a beautiful presentation for a delicious tart.
Ooh, great looking tart. Love the leaves on top. I always do that with pie. Your desserts always look professionally done.
Tracey, your tourte looks soooooo beautiful, but then everything you make does.
That is a perfect apple tart… just beautiful! I could eat a slice or two of that right now… i wish!
wow that is simply beautiful.
Buttercreambarbie Tia
its looks amazing and i am feeling hungry.. :/
That looks wonderful! Great idea to add the cutouts on top–I’ll have to remember that for when I get a chance to make the whole tart. =)
Some recipes just turn out better when they’re not scaled, and this one looks amazing in your full-size version – elegantly slim and flat just as Dorie describes it. I used golden raisins, but wish I’d used the regular ones for visual appeal. Great job, Tracey!
Glad Rick was able to bring home a slice for me. Delicious flavor! Loved the cookie crust, too. Well done, Tracey!
This looks so good! I’m glad I skipped it, because I love that sweet tart dough too much to have it in the house.