Apple Tarte Tatin

So this was basically my first time trying anything beyond a basic pie. I've made my own crust previously for a quiche, but had never made an entire semi-complicated pie from scratch before... was pretty proud of myself. I used Jacques Pepin's recipe in "Complete Techniques" (great book BTW) as a starting point but didn't follow it exactly. Here's the recipe/technique I used:

Apples:

6 Braeburn apples -- you could certainly use green apples, and they'd probably be a little crisper by the end, but I'm a red apple fan, and Braeburns don't have a ton of juice so it kept the crust nice and crispy.
1/3 C white sugar
1/2 stick of butter
Dash of cinnamon for seasoning

Slice the apples as thinly as you can while making sure they're complete cuts and fairly uniform. I slice the apples in half twice (along the core, then the remaining sides) and then use the flat cut side as a base for slicing. If you have a mandolin, do it that way and it will be faster. Melt the butter until it is foaming, then add the apples, then the sugar.


You only want to cook the apples enough for them to be coated in the sugar/butter mix and slightly tender... they have nearly 45 minutes of cooking ahead of them, so don't get them mushy. I sprinkled a little cinnamon over them after removing them from the pan to a cookie sheet lined with wax paper. you want the apples to be at least room temperature (or colder) before trying to arrange them. Make the caramel while the apples are cooling to save time.

Caramel:

1/3 C sugar
Water

This is where I diverged from Jacque's recipe a bit... instead of using simply water and sugar for the caramel, I used the remaining cooking liquid from the apples, which is a nice sweet apple butter that I thought would add some additional apple flavor. So anyway, I added the sugar all at once to the remaining juices and then added water periodically when I noticed it reducing too quickly.

Cook the mixture while stirring constantly to avoid clumping or burning. The mixture will look like this for quite a while (I had it on med-low heat, but it would go faster over medium):


Keep cooking it (raise the heat if you want to, but be careful not to go too crazy) until you get a nice golden brown like this:


After cooling the apples, pour the hot caramel into the pie plate, moving it around to distribute it as well as you can around the bottom of the plate and a bit of the sides. Now, arrange the slices as precisely as you can on the pie plate -- remember that the bottom will the be the top, since tarte tatin is an upside-down tart, so the curved part of the apples should be on the bottom. Start from the center and arrange them in an overlapping circular pattern, working your way towards the outside of the pie plate. Once you reach the edge, start from the middle again. Any small or broken pieces of apples can be effectively hidden in the middle of the tarte, so save the nicest ones for the first layer on the bottom and for the sides. Anyway, this is what mine looked like after loading it up with all 6 apples and the pieces:


The apple and caramel portion is ready to go, now onto the crust:

Crust:

2 C AP flour

1.5 sticks of butter (6 oz.), cold and cut into small pieces... or you could use half and half and use lard or vegetable shortening

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp sugar

1/3 C cold water (amount varies)

Add the butter to the flour (which should be tossed with the salt/sugar) and either use a pastry cutter or "pinch" the butter winto the flour until it resembles corn meal. If there are some larger butter chunks left, that's no problem.. just makes it flakier.

Add the water bit by bit until you can softly knead it into a workable ball. KEep oin mind that the less water you use, the softer the crust will be, as water and additional kneading develops gluten. Flour a counter/cutting board and roll the ball out, turning 1/4 turn each time. Once it's about 1/2" thick or so, place the crust on top of the pie plate and pinch the edges to seal -- make sure to push the dough down onto the apples so there isn't an air pocket before sealing. Trim the dough (I used a pizza cutter) so it just hangs over the side of the pie plate.

Brush the crust with an egg yolk and cook in a pre-heated 400-degree oven for approximately 45 minutes. Keep an eye on it late in the cooking, as it could possibly boil out all your oven or burn in a matter of minutes. When oyu take it out, let it sit for about 5 minutes, but remove it fairly quickly, as you don't want the caramel to re-solidify. Place a platter on top of the crust and flip the pie plate over. I managed to flip this one with only a single apple falling off, which I was extremely happy about. Here's what it looks like all done and steamy:

KOLACZKI!!!

A few years ago there was THE BEST Polish bakery/ deli/ liquor store (that yes, had wodka (or "vodka" as you call it) in rifle shaped bottles) that made the most delicious kolczki. They were flaky, sweet, and came in pretty much any fruit flavor you could imagine, my favorite being apricot.

Before going GF, I often made kolaczki with sub-standard results. They always turned out cake-like no matter how I altered the ingredients and ratios. Over Thanksgiving I made a GF peach pie and the crust was like the perfect kolaczki dough! So, this recipe doubles for crust, too!

4 tbsp COLD water
1/2 veg. shortening
1 1/2 c rice flour
(I used 3/4 c Gluten Free Pantry All-Purpose flour and the rest Bob's Red Mill Brown Rice Flour)
Jam
Rolling pin

Heat oven to 350. In a large bowl, cut the flour into the shortening. Add water- depending on how dry it is, you may need more. Work the dough until there are no lumps of shortening and everything is well incorporated. Let rest in the fridge for about 15 minutes to firm up.

Wipe down the counters and dust with a good helping of rice flour- don't forget to coat your rolling pin! Take about 1/4 of the chilled dough and work into a ball and place on the floured surface. The trick to rolling without crumbles or tears is to start from the center and gently roll towards you, then away. Don't forget to work the diagonals! When the dough is about 1/4" thick, get a knife and cut 3"x 2" rectangles. If you find the dough is too dry and crumbling you can 1) heat the dough up in your hands and/or 2) add more water.

Take your rectangle and fill it with 1/2 tsp of jam, avoiding the edges. Take the bottom corner and fold it into the center, pressing down gently. Take the upper diagonal corner and fold it over the corner you just folded- it kind of looks like a cross between a pillow and a wrapped gift.

Place in oven 20-25min or until slightly golden and the insides are bubbling. Immediately place on waxed paper/ parchment/ tea towel that has been heavily coated in powdered sugar. While still hot, sift a copious amount of powdered sugar over the cookies and let cool.

Ta da!