Tourtely Apple Tart (TWD)

Things have been crazy busy here lately; I can't believe that it's been two weeks since I last posted! Where did the time go?! I hope to have some time in the coming week to get caught up with things so I can finally get around to blogging about some of the great recipes I've recently tried...

But, without further ado, here's my Tuesdays with Dorie (TWD) post.  This week's recipe was chosen by Jeannette of The Whimsical Cupcake: Tourtely Apple Tart.  This is about as homey as you can get.  It's a filling of apples cooked in brown sugar, tossed together with nutty browned butter, raisins, and ground almonds.  The aroma of the filling after is just made is simply amazing.  I love browned butter.  The filling is then sandwiched between two layers of sweet, sugary almond cookie dough.

I only had one (very large, one pound) Fuji apple left in the house, so I made a half recipe which was just enough for one mini tart.  The filling probably could have used a few more apple chunks, but that was more my fault than the recipe's fault since I didn't have any more apples on hand.  If you've never browned butter before, I'd suggest turning the heat down just a tad because it does go from brown to burnt very quickly if you don't watch it closely (and it will brown at the lower heat, it will just take longer).  I did add the "optional" cinnamon to the filling, and added more than a pinch, just because it seems wrong to make an apple dessert without cinnamon :) (I know that Grace would agree.)


The result was a very homey, comforting dessert.  It was like a cross between an apple pie and an apple tart.  I find that a lot of Dorie's desserts are quite sweet, but this one was just barely sweet.... and that was more from the tart crust than from the filling itself.  I love that you can make the tart dough and the filling ahead of time, and then just assemble and bake the tart when you're ready.  I'll definitely be making this one again.  (And next time I'll be more careful not to over bake the crust so much!)

Thanks Jeannette, for hosting this week.  If you would like the recipe, you can find it here. Make sure you check out the TWD Blogroll, to see how everyone else enjoyed this sweet, appley treat!
 

* Recipe tips:

- When baking your crust, instead of removing the foil completely after 20 minutes, gently remove it, cut a hole in the center to create a "pie crust shield," and then put it back over your tart.  This will allow the center to brown without burning the edges of your crust.  I forgot to do that this time, resulting in the very brown edges you see in my photos!

 - For more recipe tips, click here.