Vegan Apple Rose Tarts

Happy Labor Day! I don't really understand what Labor Day is, but all the same, it's nice to have an excuse to have a bbq with friends. Janice, Jeff, and Jared (oh! i just realized they are all "J" people) invited me over for an afternoon bbq. This was also coincidentally a good opportunity to test out some dessert possibilities for the Les Figues auction this Saturday. Among the multitude of anxieties I am feeling about this event, the vegan portion of the desserts that I am catering is causing me a fair amount stress. Good stress though. I find the experimentation phase of working out recipes pretty exciting, but only when the recipes turn out well.

When baking vegan desserts, my stipulation is that it should be unrecognizably vegan, that it should be plainly good regardless of its non-dairy-ness.

I think this apple rose tart is 75% there. The pate brisee dough was a little too crumbly, maybe. I can work with this. I wanted to try veganizing this recipe because I'm very comfortable making non-vegan apple tarts and it seemed like an easy transition. And because the primary ingredient of this dessert is fruit, it felt a little safer to me.

I have a couple more recipes I want to try before I settle on a decision for the Les Figues Event.

Ingredients:

vegan pate brisee:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup Earth Balance, cubed and chilled

1/2 Vegetable Shortening

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar

3 tablespoons ice cold water

apple filling:

4 small apples or 3 large ones (granny smith preferably), cored and thinly sliced

1/4 cup Earth Balance

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup apricot jam

1. Pour the flour onto a clean surface

2. Make a well in the flour and put the vegetable shortening, earth balance, salt, and sugar in the center

3. slowly work the flour into the center of the well until the mixture is crumbly (the dough will not hold together at this point)

4. add the ice cold water, one tablespoon at a time and work the dough until it begins to hold together

5. divide the dough in half, pat into discs and wrap tightly in plastic wrap

6. chill in the refrigerator for at least an hour or you can freeze for up to 3 months

7. roll the dough out to about 1/4 inch thickness and place into either 12-15 tartlet pans or two large tart pans

8. arrange the apple slices in a single direction, going around the tart pan so that it looks like a rose

9. dot the apple slice evenly with Earth balance

10. sprinkle with generous amount of sugar

11. bake at 400 for about 30 minutes or until the apples and crust look golden

12. let the tart cool

13. heat up the apricot jam in a sauce pan at low heat

14. brush the tarts with the jam

Honeyed Marscapone Fruit Tartlets

I am amazed at the varieties of figs. Incredible. It isn't just a matter of color. Some taste more tart, almost raspberry like. Some taste like pure honey. And the textures are dramaticially different. The Calimyrna fig has a thicker skin and a seedier bite. Some are less seedy and have flesh that resembles a thick jam.

There's a man that I'm utterly devoted to when it comes to buying figs. I suppose I should find out his name and the name of his farm but all I know is that he's slightly crabby and surprisingly generous (he'll throw in a few freebies here and there). Also, I know that he is of Portuguese descent. I don't know why I know this.

Most farmers market vendors sell either Brown Turkey figs or Black Mission figs but my favorite fig man seems to add new varieties every week.

He is at the Hollywood farmers market and the Echo Park farmers market.

Though I love figs and fruit in all forms, when the fruit is really good it seems like a shame to bake it or to sugar it up. For the most part I ate nearly 2 1/2 baskets of fresh figs all by myself but to use up the last few figs I made tartlets with marscapone cheese.

I had some leftover dough from my quiche so I baked those into tartlet form and filled them with the marscapone cheese and fruit and topped the whole thing with a generous dripping of honey.

Here is the recipe for the marscapone filling:

Ingredients:

1/2 cup marscapone cheese

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons honey

pinch of salt

1. combine all the ingredients together

2. spoon into tart shell

Blueberry Tartlets

These are more for show. The taste, I think, was not as exciting as they looked.  I recently purchased tartlet pans and they've sort of been taunting me in their cuteness.  But making tarts seemed time consuming and I've only just gotten around to using them for the first time.  Surprisingly not that time consuming, especially since I had made the tart dough before hand.  

Ingredients:

pate sucree--

1 3/4 cups pastry flour

7 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold and small cubed

1 cup confectioners' sugar

pinch of salt,

2 large eggs at room temperature

blueberry filling--

2 cups blueberries

1/3 cup sugar

zest of half a lemon

juice of half a lemon

egg was--

one egg, beaten

1 tablespoon milk

Making the pate sucree

1. mound the flour on a large surface and make a well in the center

2. place the butter, sugar, and salt in the well and begin to incorporate the ingredients into the flour

3. again, make a well in the center and this time add the eggs

4. knead the dough until it begins to come together

5. form into a ball

6. wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or until ready to use (or this can be stored in a freezer bag for up to 3 months)

7. when ready to use, unroll the dough onto a floured surface and use a rolling pin to make it about 1/4 inch in thickness

8. drape the dough over the tart pan and press the sides into the flutes of the pan

9. remove excess dough by rolling the rolling pin over the tart pan once

10. preheat oven to 350

11. meanwhile, line the dough in the tart pan with parchment paper and fill it with dry beans or pie weights

12. bake for about 10 minutes

13. remove the parchment paper and beans/pie weights and bake for 3 more minutes

14. meanwhile combine ingredients for blueberry filling and cut out circles in the remaining pate sucree with a mini biscuit cutter

15. fill the baked tart shell with the blueberry filling

16. cover the blueberry filling with the circle cut outs of pate sucree in a circular pattern

17. brush with egg wash and sprinkle with sanding sugar

18. bake for 15 minutes or until the pie top is golden brown