Wednesday, April 7, 2010

French Apple Tart cored by the Apples in Stereo and Sweet Apples

It was brought to my attention, earlier this week, that I am eating nowhere near the amount of fruits per day that I should be being an active, thirty year old, male. I decided that this week I was going to make a concerted effort to eat three servings of fruit a day. Monday, in order to help me reach the goal, I baked an easy French Apple Tart. I'm not sure if this is what people had in mind when they meant fruit, but I certainly enjoyed it.


French Apple Tart (adapted from Vegetarian Times April 2008)
(printable version)
-1 sheet of puff pastry, thawed
-six granny smith apples, peeled, cored and sliced thinly
-2 Tbs. lemon juice
-2 Tbs. of sugar
-1/2 cup of apricot jam

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Coat fluted tart pan with cooking spray. Roll out puff pastry. Press into the tart pan. Trim excess dough from edge.

3. Toss sliced apples with lemon juice.

4. Cover the puff pastry with overlapping apple slices in circles. Start at the outside of the pastry and work in. Cover any bare spots with apples. When the first layers has been placed on the puff pastry, sprinkle with 1/2 of the sugar. Repeat adding a second layer of apples and sugar. Finish with a third layer of apples.

5. Place the tart in the oven and bake for ten minutes. Reduce heat to 325 and bake an additional 35 minutes or until crust is golden (like an apple pie). Cool on wire rack.

6. Combine apricot jam and 2 Tbs. of water in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 1 minute. Using a pastry brush, brush jam mixture over top of the tart (while jam is still hot). Enjoy.

*Note the actual recipe calls for 1/4 a cup of sugar. I greatly reduced this and the tart was very not sweet and actually tart. If you want yours sweeter, use the 1/4 a cup of sugar and place 2 Tbs. between each layer.

It was apples all around while I baked up this tart. Providing the musical accompaniment was The Apples in Stereo, a well known indie rock band who will be releasing their seventh studio album on April 20th. The album is entitled Travellers in Space and Time and will be released on Yep Roc/Simian (Elijah Wood's label)/Elephant 6. You can pre-order the album here. "Dream about the future" is one of the tracks on the album.

Apples in Stereo-Dream About the future

Also being released on April 20th is the debut album, Love and Desperation, from Sweet Apple. The band is an indie super group of sorts featuring J. Mascis (Dinosaur Jr.), Tim Parnin and John Petkovic (Cobra Verde, Petkovic was also in Guided by Voices) and Dave "No Joke on the Last Name" Sweetapple (Witch). "Do you Remember" is their first single from the album, which you can pre-order here.

Sweet Apples-Do you Remember

Stay tuned for an interview with herMajesty in the next few days. Also, don't forget to download our most recent playlist.

3 comments:

  1. Those apples definitely count, I would say :)

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  2. My friend Seth posted this on the facebook fan page for this blog:

    "I once asked Paul (who graduated top of his class from a respectable culinary school) why pie was so bad for you. he said despite the fat content, pie was a good thing, as it added fruit to most people's diets that they desperately needed. So I say rock on with your apple tart.

    Thank you for finally making me listen to the Apples in Stereo. They've been dancing around my periphery for a long time. I like them!"

    So that is two for two for people who say that apple tarts will get me my fruit intake.

    Score!

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  3. Hah, I love your way of upping the fruit factor in your day! I really love the idea of this open face tart. And the jam on top is an outstanding idea. Thanks!!!!!!

    ReplyDelete