Apple And Prune Tart Recipes

PRUNE AND APPLE CROUSTADE

Steps:

• Soak the prunes in Armagnac overnight (or perhaps use preserved prunes in Armagnac from a gourmet shop, which have even more flavor because they'll have macerated longer). Drain, pit and roughly chop, reserving the liquid.
• Melt 3 tablespoons of the butter in a saute pan and add the apples until soft, about 5 minutes. Sprinkle over 2 to 3 tablespoons of the sugar and continue cooking to caramelize, about 10 minutes more. Pour on about a tablespoon of the reserved Armagnac, flambe, and boil until the flames die out and the liquid has disappeared. Remove from the heat and taste. Depending on your apples, the mixture may need more acidity. If it does, add a squirt of lemon to taste. Stir through the chopped prunes.
• Heat the oven to 375 degrees F/190 degrees C. Set the ring part of an 8-inch/20 cm springform pan on a baking sheet.
• Prepare the pastry: Melt the remaining butter in a small saucepan or microwave. Working with one phyllo sheet at a time, prepare as follows: lay one sheet of phyllo on a clean surface and cut into three strips crosswise (not lengthwise). Brush one of the three strips with melted butter, sprinkle with a little sugar and a few drops of Armagnac. Lay another strip on top and repeat. Lay the final strip on top and brush with butter. Your single sheet of phyllo is now a three-layer-thick strip. Lay it in the center of the ring mold so that it runs from the middle out, and up and over the edge of the ring, like the spoke of a wheel. Continue with the remaining strips, laying them in around the ring slightly overlapping so that there are no openings.
• Spoon the prune and apple filling into the bottom of the mold. Fold the pastry strips up in over top, twisting somewhat as you go so that the top is a rustic landscape of papery peaks and valleys totally covering the top of the tart. Brush quite generously with butter and scatter over a scant handful of sugar. (You may have some butter and sugar left over once you're done. If you do, use them for something else. The same goes for the Armagnac, of which you will have a lot left: use it in fruit salad or let a piece of pound cake drink it up...or serve it in tiny glasses with dessert.)
• Remove the springform ring, leaving the formed croustade on the baking sheet. Bake until the pastry is fully cooked and golden, about 40 minutes. Remove from the oven, slide onto rack and cool. Serve with ice cream on the side or all on its own.

APPLE AND PRUNE TART

Steps:

• Make dough:
• Pulse together flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor. Add butter and pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal. Sprinkle in 4 tablespoons ice water and pulse until pastry starts to hold together, adding remaining tablespoon ice water if needed. Turn dough out onto a very lightly floured surface and knead 4 or 5 times. Form dough into a disk and chill, wrapped in plastic wrap, 30 minutes.
• Make filling:
• Simmer water, Calvados, and prunes, uncovered, until most of liquid is absorbed, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and cool.
• Preheat oven to 400°F.
• Stir together cinnamon, cloves, 2 tablespoons flour, and 1/2 cup sugar.
• Peel and core apples and cut into 1/2-inch wedges. Halve wedges crosswise and toss with cinnamon mixture. Add lemon juice and toss to coat.
• Finely grind walnuts with remaining 3 tablespoons flour and remaining 1/4 cup sugar in a food processor.
• Assemble and bake tart:
• Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface into a 14- by 18-inch oval. Roll dough loosely onto floured rolling pin and unroll onto a large buttered baking sheet. Spinkle walnut mixture over pastry, leaving a 2 1/2- to 3-inch border.
• Stir stewed prunes into apple mixture and spoon over walnut mixture, evenly tucking prunes between apple pieces. Turn edge of dough over fruit to form pleats. Brush top of dough with milk and sprinkle with sugar.
• Bake tart, loosely covered with foil, in middle of oven 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake until crust and fruit are golden and juices are bubbling, about 30 minutes more. Cool tart on baking sheet on a rack at least 20 minutes before serving.

APPLE PRUNE CARDAMOM CAKE

Steps:

• Put the prunes in a medium bowl and pour in the apple cider. Let soak at room temperature for at least 1 hour or, if longer, refrigerate up to overnight.
• In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, simmer the soaked prunes and cider for 15 to 20 minutes until the prunes are soft and mostly broken down. Set aside and let cool to room temperature, then stir in the grated apples.
• Heat oven to 350 degrees and generously butter a 9-inch cake pan. In a large bowl, thoroughly whisk together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cardamom and cinnamon.
• In a stand mixer, using the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 4 to 5 minutes. Scrape down the bowl, then add the vanilla extract and mix until combined. Scrape down the bowl once again, and add the eggs one at a time, scraping down in between each addition. Alternate adding half the prune mixture, then half the flour mixture, to the stand mixer bowl, starting with wet and ending with dry, scraping down between each addition. Take care not to overmix.
• Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out with moist crumbs and no wet batter. Let cool on a rack for 10 minutes, then invert onto a plate. Invert again onto a serving plate and serve warm with whipped cream, crème fraîche or ice cream, if you'd like.

APPLE-CRANBERRY TART

Steps:

• Place cranberries in a small bowl. Cover with boiling water. Let soak until plump, about 15 minutes. Drain.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a baking sheet lightly with cooking spray.
• Cut a deep vertical slice into both sides of each apple, being sure not to cut through to the core. Attach 1 apple to a spiralizer fitted with the straight-flat blade and cut into thin half-slices. Repeat with second apple.
• Combine cranberries, apple slices, lemon juice, and vanilla extract in a bowl; toss to coat.
• Mix white sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt together in a bowl. Stir into the apple mixture.
• Roll pie crust out into a 10-inch round on a floured work surface. Transfer to the baking sheet.
• Spoon apple mixture into the center of the crust, leaving a 2-inch border. Lift up edges of crust and fold around apple mixture. Brush edges with egg white. Sprinkle turbinado sugar all over tart.
• Bake in the preheated oven until apples are tender and crust is golden brown, 38 to 40 minutes. Transfer to a serving plate and slice.

TOURTIERE (APPLE, PRUNE AND ARMAGNAC TART)

Steps:

• To prepare the tourtiere you will need a large, round, shallow baking pan; a 16-inch paella pan is perfect.
• Peel the apples, quarter them and slice very thin. In a mediumsize saucepan combine the apples, 1/2 cup sugar and 1/4 cup water and cook over medium-high heat until quite dry, or for about 20 minutes. Set aside.
• Meanwhile, combine the prunes and Armagnac and allow them to marinate while the apples cook.
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
• Dampen a large cloth towel and drape it over the phyllo dough to prevent it from drying out.
• Drain the prunes and combine them with the cooked apples. Reserve the Armagnac or rum.
• Using a pastry brush, lightly oil the bottom and sides of the baking pan.
• Place the tourtiere in the oven and bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees, then reduce the oven temperature to 300 and cook an additional hour. Dust with powdered sugar. Serve either hot, at room temperature or gently reheated, cutting into pie-shaped wedges.
• Spoon the apple-and-prune mixture in a single layer on top of the fourth sheet of dough, covering the bottom and sides of the pastry. Be sure to keep the unused phyllo dough covered as you continue to work.
• Continue with the rest of the phyllo dough, layering sheet by sheet, covering each sheet with a sprinkling of sugar and a sprinkling of Armagnac, until you have used all the sugar, Armagnac and dough. Use about 10 sheets, or layers, in all.
• Trim off any overlapping pastry from the edges so they are even and sprinkle the trimmings on top of the last layer of pastry.
• Center one sheet of phyllo dough in the baking pan and sprinkle generously with sugar and Armagnac. Do this three more times until you have four sheets of phyllo.

APPLE-PRUNE CHUTNEY

Steps:

• Place onion, raisins, prunes, ginger, vinegar, sugar, cumin, salt, and 2 cups water in a low-sided, 6-quart saucepan. Set over medium-high heat, and bring to a boil.
• Reduce to heat to medium-low, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until most of the liquid has been absorbed, about 40 minutes.
• Add the apples and 1 1/2 cups water. Cook, stirring frequently, until apples are soft and translucent and liquid has been absorbed, about 50 minutes. Remove pan from heat.
• Transfer to a large bowl set over an ice bath to chill, and store in airtight container, refrigerated, up to 4 weeks.

PRUNE, APPLE AND CALVADOS TART

Steps:

• Heat the oven to 190C / 375°F.
• Process 125g diced chilled butter, 25g caster sugar and the grated orange rind in a food processor until it resembles breadcrumbs. Turn into a bowl.
• Mix 30ml water and the egg yolk, blend into the mixtureand knead lightly to form a ball; wrap and chill for about 30 minutes.
• Roughly chop the prunes, grate the apple and pour over the Calvados.
• Melt the remaining butter and mix with the ground almonds, beaten eggs and remaining caster sugar.
• Roll the pastry thinly and line 23 cm (9inch) round 4cm (11/4inch) deep, loose based, fluted flan tin. Bake blind until set.
• Add the prunes and apple to the almond mixture and spoon into the flan case. Sprinkle with slivered almonds and bake for 30 minutes or until lightly browned.
• Leave to cool for about 20 minutes.
• Melt the jam with 15ml (1tbsp) orange juice, when bubbling, sieve, then brush over the top of the tart.
• Serve warm or cold with Greek yogurt or creme fraiche.

APPLE, APRICOT, AND PRUNE TART

Steps:

• Make pastry dough:
• Into a chilled large metal bowl sift together flour and salt. Set a grater in bowl and using largest teardrop-shaped holes coarsely grate frozen butter into flour, gently lifting and tossing flour to coat butter. Chill mixture 20 minutes. Drizzle 8 tablespoons ice water evenly over mixture and gently stir with a fork until just incorporated. Test mixture by gently squeezing a small handful: When it has proper texture it should hold together without crumbling apart. If necessary, add more water, 1 tablespoon at a time, stirring until just incorporated, and test mixture again. (If you overwork or add too much water, pastry will be tough.)
• Turn mixture out onto a lightly floured surface and with floured hands mound into 4 portions. With heel of hand smear each portion once in a forward motion to help distribute fat. Gather dough portions together and form it, rotating it on work surface, into a disk (dough will not be smooth). Chill dough, wrapped in plastic wrap, at least 2 hours, or until firm, and up to 2 days.
• On floured surface with a floured rolling pin roll out dough 1/4 inch thick (about a 15-inch round). Fit dough into a 12 1/2- by 1-inch fluted round tart pan with a removable bottom and with a rolling pin roll over top of shell to trim pastry flush with rim. With a fork prick bottom of shell all over. Chill shell 30 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 425° F.
• Line shell with foil and fill with pie weights or raw rice. Bake shell in middle of oven 20 minutes. Carefully remove weights or rice and foil and bake shell until golden, about 10 minutes more. Cool shell in pan on a rack.
• Make filling
• Peel, core, and chop 1 apple. In a saucepan cook chopped apple, apricots, 1/2 cup sugar, and water, covered, over moderately low heat, stirring occasionally, until fruit is tender, about 12 minutes. Cool mixture 20 minutes. In a food processor pulse mixture until smooth and transfer to a small bowl. Chop prunes and stir into purée. Peel remaining 4 apples and quarter. Core apples and cut lengthwise into 1/8-inch-thick slices.
• Spoon apricot purée evenly into shell and smooth top. Decoratively arrange apple slices, overlapping them, over purée and sprinkle with remaining 2 tablespoons sugar.
• Bake tart in middle of oven until apple slices are slightly browned and crust is golden brown, about 45 minutes. Cool tart slightly in pan on rack. In a small saucepan melt jam over low heat and pour through a fine sieve into a small bowl. Press hard on solids and discard. With a pastry brush, brush glaze evenly over tart.
• Serve tart with crème fraîche or whipped cream.

COUNTRY APPLE PRUNE CAKE

Steps:

• In a large bowl, beat sugar, oil and eggs for 2 minutes at medium speed; blend in apples. Combine dry ingredients; gradually beat into egg mixture. Stir in plums and nuts. Spoon into a greased and floured 10-in. tube pan. , Bake at 325° for 1 hour and 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan 15 minutes; invert onto wire rack to cool. , Just before serving, dust cake with confectioners' sugar.

PRUNE TART

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a medium saucepan, bring wine, orange juice, 1/2 cup sugar, and cinnamon to a boil over high heat. Remove from heat; add prunes, and let steep 10 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to transfer prunes to a bowl. Return liquid to a boil; cook until slightly reduced and thickened, 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from heat.
• Meanwhile, roll out puff pastry into a 12-by-18-inch rectangle. In a small bowl, combine remaining 2 tablespoons sugar and orange zest; sprinkle evenly over pastry. Arrange prunes in rows over pastry, leaving a 1-inch border on all sides. In a small bowl, whisk together egg and cream; brush mixture on edges of pastry.
• Bake until crust is golden, about 20 minutes, rotating pan and brushing tart with reserved cooking liquid halfway through. Remove from oven; let cool slightly. Serve warm.