Monday, March 2, 2015

Apple Crostata for Secret Recipe Club

I was sweating it a little.   My Secret Recipe Club reveal was coming up and I'd been so busy I'd only glanced at my assigned blog for this month.   My assigned blog was Baking and Creating with Avril.
sigh...

Never mind actually making stuff from it.
But...

I done did it.  Found 'the recipe', and ended up not only completing my assignment, but also made dessert for the Senior Lunch this week.
 

I'd already planned on some kind of slab Apple Pie, and then I found Avril's recipe for Apple Crostata.  And pardon me Avril, I did modify it a tad.   After all, I'm cooking for upwards of a 100 people at a time.
Avril has a lot of great sweet recipes on her blog as well.  I've got a couple bookmarked that I want to try my hand at, later on. 

What is the Secret Recipe Club you ask?   Well, we're a bunch of bloggers, divided up into 4 groups, A, B, C and D.  And once a month we're assigned a blog to make and post a recipe from.   I used to be in Group B, but am now in Group A and am having fun getting to know the bloggers in this group.     You never know who got your blog until the REVEAL DAY!!!, which for Group A is today, or the first Monday of the month.

So, without further ado, and no drum roll either...

Apple Crostata

I had already planned on making a slab apple pie,  which I did, but I also doubled the recipe and made two large crostata's, along with the apple pie.   I figured since we were peeling apples anyway, I'd use them in as many ways as possible.
I got lots of positive comments, well, actually, compliments on the Crostata's.   The crust was easy to pull together and was lovely and flaky.   I did modify it just a tad though.  I mixed it by hand instead of in the food processor.   And I used a mixture of Crisco and Margarine because that's what I had on hand to use.
Here's Avril's recipe,  I did double it. 

Pastry:

1 cup flour
2 Tbsp. Sugar
1/4 tsp. Kosher Salt  (I omitted the salt as there was salt in the margarine already)
1 stick unsalted butter, diced, and cold  (I didn't have real butter, but used a mixture of crisco and margarine instead).
2 Tablespoons ice cold water

Mix pastry ingredients together until it resembles peas, using either your hands or a food processor.  Form into a disk and place in the fridge to rest for a few minutes, well, more like an hour or so if you can before rolling out.  My dough only had a chance to rest for as long as it took us to peel 10 pounds of apples.    Hint:  If you are peeling that amount of apples, place them in some acidulated water so they don't brown.  Won't hurt the taste, but they do tend to look yucky. 

Filling:

3-4 medium baking apples, or a good tart apple.
1/4 tsp. grated lemon zest
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar + 2 Tbsp.
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. Cinnamon
1/4 tsp. Nutmeg  (I didn't have any nutmeg but did have some whole allspice so I smashed them and added them to the filling.)
4 Tbsp. cold butter, diced

Peel and chunk up the apples, sprinkle them with 2 tablespoons of sugar and zest and set aside.  I also added a little of cinnamon here as well as the allspice.

Make the crumb topping by combining the flour, salt and sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg (if using nutmeg) by 'cutting' the butter into the flour until it resembles coarse meal.  Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees,
Take the dough out of the oven and roll it out into roughly an 11 or 12 inch circle.  (My circles weren't all that great cause I was running against the clock at this point and needed to get them into the oven NOW!)  Mound the apples in the center, leaving a border of about an inch or two.   Place the topping on top of the apples, and fold the crust in around the apples.  (Don't do like I did, and not seal it up.)
Apple Crostata
Bake for around 25 minutes until the apples are done and it's lovely and brown.
Serve with some ice cream or whipped topping.

Apple Crostata
I have to say that the two I made for the lunch disappeared fast.  I also went home and made one for myself cause I didn't get a chance to taste more than just a bit of the crust.    And Avril is right, this also makes a nice breakfast. 
Apple Crostata
I will probably make this again, it wasn't all that hard and made a lovely change for desserts for our lunch.  




Sidsel Munkholm - Author
Sidsel Munkholm - Author

Sid loves to cook, feed people and have fun in the kitchen. She shares her successes and the involuntary offerings she sometimes gives the kitchen goddess as well. And she's still looking for the mythical fairy to help her clean the kitchen after a marathon cooking session. Currently working on a cookbook showcasing the recipes from her Danish heritage.

19 comments:

  1. That looks really good. I like the free-form nature of the crust.

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    1. It was almost too free form, I thought, but I managed to get it all corralled before the apples escaped. I just wish I'd sealed them a little better.

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  2. That would make a lovely start to the day if i had that for breakfast - beats toast anyway! #secretrecipeclub

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    1. I figured if Avril could do it, so could I. And it was tasty.

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  3. Wonderful! I love that you made the Apple Crosta - and 2 of them at that!! Happy Reveal Day! :-)

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    1. Thanks for a recipe I will make again. I loved getting the positive comments on it as well, and the slices disappeared, fast.

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  4. Mmm, I want a piece of that!

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  5. This looks great and I'm so happy you scaled it up for 100 people. That sounds like quite an undertaking, but I'm glad it worked out. Great SRC post!

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    1. I actually only scaled it up for about 30 pieces, we also had lots of cakes for desserts that day. But it was well received.

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  6. Yum...I'm a big fan of apple crostata!

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    1. Me too, now. Never had tried my hand at making one before. I will make it again.

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  7. Your crostata looks delicious! And I loved exploring your site this month for my recipe :)

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    1. Thanks for the kind words. Feel free to explore the site anytime.

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  8. Your plan for slab Apple Pie is really good. Thanks.

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