This year's Mother's Day was a scramble for ideas for me. I didn't know what to do, nor did I really have much time, seeing how I had to study and prepare for exams (that are coming up really fast). Then, yesterday, I saw how many apples were sitting in the fruit baskets and getting riper and riper, with no one intent on eating them. Lucky for me, I still had one pastry dough in the freezer.
The apples ended up being catastrophic for me, in the sense that when I got up this morning, those apples that had been sitting in the basket vanished. Turns out one of my relatives brought time to my aunt's house, where there are many people to eat them. After a short hunt, I came across three apples... Not enough for my plans.
After some asking around, I got my hands on a few other apples, and I could finish my tart the way I wanted to!
Seeing how it's Mother's Day, and also because I could never do anything to fill the center of my apple tarts without them looking awful, I decided to go for an apple rose in the center. Which was also a disaster on its own at first, since the thin apple slices would break instead of bending. In these situations, Google is a very good friend. Zapping my slices in the microwave for 30 seconds did the trick.
The recipe below is an improved version of this one.
Recipe:
Ingredients:
- 1 store-bough pastry dough
- 4-5 apples (depending on your pan size and apple sizes)
- water
- sugar
- cinnamon powder
- Peel and dice 2 apples. Put in a small saucepan with half a teaspoon of sugar and a bit of cinnamon. Cover with water, bring to boil, and lower the heat to simmer for about 20 mins.
- Put pastry dough in tart tin and poke holes everywhere. Bake at 200°C for about 5-10 mins until the surface begins to crisp (looks drier than when first put into oven).
- Remove apples from water and mash with a fork into applesauce. Reserve apple flavored water. Spread into even layer on top of the pastry, at the bottom of the tart.
- Sprinkle with cinnamon.
- Peel and slice remaining apples. Dispose them as you wish.
Tip:
If you want to make a rose, zap those apple slices in the microwave for about 30 secs to be able to roll them. - Sprinkle with more cinnamon.
- Bake at 200°C for about 30 mins or until apple slice edges are browned.
- Boil down the remaining apple flavored water with some added sugar until syrupy.
- Remove tart from oven. Using a spoon, brush the syrup onto the apple slices to glaze.
- Enjoy~
