Sunday, July 10, 2011

TSA Tart

So, you might have read that on my way home from King Arthur Flour in Vermont, my pies got questioned by the TSA in New Hampshire before I boarded by flight.

I was worried that I wouldn't be able to carry the pies on board the small plane that took me from New Hampshire to Boston, but it never crossed my mind that pies might be on the no-fly list.

Luckily, my pies passed inspection and the nice TSA lady asked me how we made our pie crusts, then went on to describe how she made her crust.

When the questions were over I ended up with the TSA agent's pie crust recipe.

Or, more accurately, I got the list of ingredients for the crust, and a little bit of conversation. This is what it looked like.


She told me that she didn't chill the dough, she just rolled and filled and baked.

I used the recipe to make dough for a tart. Sure, the recipe is for a pie, but I only bought 4 apples. Ya gotta adapt, right?

TSA Tart

2 cups flour
1 cup cold unsalted butter
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 to 1/2 cup ice water
4 baking apples
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon cornstarch

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Combine the flour, sugar, and salt in a bowl. Cut the butter into 1/4-inch cubes and add it to the flour. Cut the butter in with a pastry cutter until it is in pea-sized pieces. Add as much water as necessary to moisten the flour until the dough holds together.

Turn the dough out on a floured work surface. Roll it out to your desired thickness and place it in a 9-inch tart pan. Press it into the bottom and against the side and trim the dough evenly across the top.

Chill the dough while you prepare the apples.

Peel, core and thinly slice the apples. To keep them from browning, put the cut apples into a bowl with cold water with Fruit Fresh or a bit of lemon juice.

Combine the sugar, cinnamon, and cornstarch in a bowl. Stir to combine. Drain the apples and add them to the sugar mixture. Stir to coat.

Arrange the apples in the tart pan. You can use the pie dough scraps to make a decorative topping, or make a crumb topping - or just leave the apples naked.

Bake at 375 degrees until the pastry is browned and the apples are baked through, about 50 minutes.

 Cool the tart on a rack. It will slice easier if you let it cool completely. Serve warm, cool, or cold.
Yum

3 comments:

Adam said...

The question is: how did the crust actually turn out? Was it a good recipe?

Donna Currie said...

It was a good crust, but nothing magical. She had insisted that you don't need to chill the crust before putting it in the pan, but I think it would have been better if I had done that.

Anonymous said...

That's a good one, Donna. I'm A-OK with the higher fat (butter) content and I certainly chill along the way. And the less sugar, the better I like the flavor. Yes!! Most ripe fruit is plenty sweet and does not need much sugar. This tart dough is suitable for darn near any fruit and it is easy to work with. A real winner! -C.

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