Brown Sugar Apple Crumble Tart

Hey, here’s a hot baking tip for ya (is that a pun?):  just because a recipe is maybe miswritten or isn’t written to your liking or is incomplete or ingredients or instructions lead you awry, doesn’t mean you can’t bake.  Even a Brown Sugar Apple Crumble Tart.  I hear you scoffing.

And I mean no offense there, recipe writers.

Don’t give up.  I know it’s frustrating but hang in there with me.

Oh and here’s another tip:  yeah folks always say make the recipe once as written and then alter after.  Yeeaaahhhh, I get it and I may have uttered a variation of that too, but if you like cinnamon, say, toss some in, don’t ignore your instincts.  Or you sense so and so baked thingie would rock it with nuts, by all means.

Don’t be afraid to try things.  This is how we learn.

Case in point for me was this particular recipe I found.  Drool-worthy concept right off the big ol’ bat, amiright?!  Tart?  Apple?  Crumble?!  Brown sugar?!?  Whoa.  Fan me down.

So I made it for the first time a month or two back….

Yup.

Oh and hey, I am a million times on board with fast and easy desserts.  A million.  Sometimes though, ya know, guests come by (although not here, thanks Finn) or we’re invited somewhere or for zero reason at all, sometimes I wanna do it up, take the time, go the extra mile.

As you should, for no reason at all.  Life is short, you only get one go.  Make the nice dessert.

But right, for no other reason than it sounding faboo, I made this for a no-special-occasion dinner with my folks.  Everybody loved it.  I wasn’t satisfied.  Oh don’t get me wrong, it was good but ho ho ho-okay, my standards can be a tad excessively high.  *Are.  “Needs work,” I wrote on the sheet.

I always print out recipes (hot tip!) so I can write notes as I go or as we’re devouring the final product.  The recipe is in a book or you can’t print it?  Use a sticky note or paper and tuck it into the book if you’re not willing to write in it.

Originally I planned to share this recipe under the guise of I Made This Once Following the Make it Once As Written Rule Ignoring My Instincts, It Needs Work (in my opinion), Don’t Fret, It Happens to Everyone, Here’s What I’d Do to Fix It, I’ll Give It a Whirl Again Sometime.

As with many ventures in life, including baking, (hot tip!) mindset is more than half the battle.  We’re all only human, humans make errors.  Oh and haha, there are plenty o’ times it is for sure me, but just know, as I said, it’s not always you, don’t give up.   PMA, aka Positive Mental Attitude (the only lesson I remember from my algebra teacher — she was awesome).

So the opportunity to bake it again arose…Long story short, I fixed it.  But I’ll still take you through several conundrums.  

And other long story short, I was excited to give my new tart pan* a run at it.  My previous one hadn’t seen much use sadly, hence it was rusted.  Heh.  Yikes.  Gross.

Ahoy!  Let's go!

Starting with!  The apples.  Get a mix of apples.  This time I had one Honeycrisp, a tiny Michigan Gala (mmm mm, childhood), Cortlands, and Fujis.  That may sound excessive and you hardly need to go that far but different apples bring different flavors and textures resulting in a more rounded finished product.  If all you have in the house is one kind or you prefer a particular apple, don’t fret:  ignore my advice, do what makes you happy.

Next, don’t chop them chunky fat as originally written, slice them about a 1/8” thick.  Unless you prefer them chunkier but you’ll need to adjust the time on the next step.  Personally, despite seeing what the author was getting at, I felt the chunky didn’t work.

Don’t do this.  Or, you can, but cook them longer.  Chunks were a weird textural thing against the whole though, IMHO.

Now, saute* them to floppy.  Well wait, not overdone but past just-softened, I should say.  If you note the bake time, you’ll see they’re not in the oven long therefore you need to get them pre-cooked enough.

Be sure to add some oomph here, like cinnamon and a pinch of nutmeg for example, whatever your favorites are.

Remove those apples to a strainer* over a bowl then yep, you got it, cook down them juices until thick and sticky and gooey and caramelized.  Scoop that flavor-laden goo into the apples and mix ‘em up. 

Sweet!  Ok!  Onward to the crumble.

Here I had ended up with a dry, powdery, not crunchy crumbly, missing flavor sort of mess the first go around. 

Again, don’t do this.  Leave the oats out at first.

Cut the flour quantity, I decided.  And hold back the oats until the final couple pulses.*  Oh, and toss in a sprinkle of cinnamon and salt.  Lo, bingo, crumble issues resolved.  Ta da!  

So ok then, the tart shell.  Yeah this needed absolutely no freakin’ work what-so-freaking-ever as oh my goodness, I am doubled over, it is fan-freaking-tastic.  Leave it as written.  Add it to your repertoire immediately.  Done.

❮ ❯

What’s stellar about it too is it’s not an all day dough affair either, no pre-planning, no waiting.  It’s nearly a make and bake so you can keep on rollin’ on. 

Speaking of (and yes I’m trying to pretend I didn’t roll out [two bad] puns ah ha ha), after a brief chilling, roll the dough out to a smidge less than 1/4″ thick, trimming to around 11″ inches if the pan is 9″ inches in diameter (at the bottom, measured from the outside [hot tip]).  The original recipe called for a 10″ pan so ultimately either is fine.  If you have a 10’er, trim to 12″.

Gingerly load the dough into the pan, fold the edges towards the outside, tuck them gently in, lightly smush the dough into the flutes until it squishes upwards about a quarter inch or so proud of the rim.  As the shell bakes, it’ll shrink back down to flush with the edge.  Cool trick!

Ah crap, what a mess. It must’ve been warm that day. What a freakin’ train wreck. Don’t do this.

Once the shell has finished its twenty in the oven, brush* it with your preserves which in my case was apple jelly to keep building that apple flavor…

Don’t prick the bottom.  You run the risk of going too far and major leaks.  Not that ahem, I’d know anything about that.  And as you can see, the tart shell shrank below the edge because I didn’t do that spiffy trick I mentioned above.

…load the apples in, no need to arrange prettily…

All aboard the Tart Ship!

…then top with the crumble.

Don’t do this.  See, too powdery and dry and not clumpy enough.

Into the oven….out of the oven and voila, the perfect apple tart!  Eat this warm, cold is exceptional too, with a dollop of fresh whipped cream, or a scoop of melty vanilla ice cream, or even just plain.  It is apple heaven I tell ya, apple Heav. En.   And surprisingly not overly sweet either.  It’s truly perfect.

And voila.  I’m not drooling, you’re drooling.

Next time I make this, and oh I will, I’ll get more accurate photos of the proper end result.

Holy apple tart. Promise this will be the best apple tart ever.

Note:  This content originally appeared on Flaky Bakers.

*My new tart pan, saute pans, strainers, food processors, and pastry brushes are Amazon affiliate links.  Happy baking, thanks!  Please see the "info" tab for more, well, info.