Vincent Price's Crostata di Mele (Apple Tart)

This book eluded me for a long time.  I don't remember where or when I first read about Vincent Price and his love of food, but I knew I had to have a copy of the cookbook.  Unfortunately, every time the prices would come down to my cheapskate level, someone in the blog world would write about it and the prices would head back up.  I finally found one I could buy without needing an antacid, so I pounced on it!

While thumbing through the book, this apple tart recipe caught my eye, so I bookmarked it with the handy built-in ribbon bookmark.  Fancy!

It seemed simple enough - a tart crust, apples, apricot preserves and powdered sugar.  And mostly it was simple.  Except for the crust.  Well, the crust seemed simple, until I tried to move it to the tart pan.  It fell into at least a hundred pieces, all over the kitchen counter.

I gathered the crust fragments and re-rolled them.  I veeerrrry gently lifted the crust onto the rolling pin using a lefse stick, but when I moved it over to the pan, the crust broke apart again.  I would guess it was more like fifty pieces this time, so Pollyanna might call that progress.  I, on the other hand, broke out the "magic words" and proceeded to just mash the broken pieces together in the pan (while still muttering some magic words).  I didn't even try to make a lattice top - I just cut the top crust into 2" strips and placed them on the top in something slightly resembling a pattern.  Slightly.

The recipe wasn't terribly clear on how to place the apples in the crust, so I stood them on edge as best I could.  I had three large Granny Smith apples and was able to get almost all of the slices into the crust.  I only had a ten ounce jar of preserves (the 100% fruit type), but that seemed to be a good amount for the tart.

I was afraid that it would be tough after being rolled a second time, but miraculously, the crust ended up being tender and tasty and the combination of apples and apricots is fantastic.  This recipe is definitely a keeper.

Vincent Price's Crostata di Mele (Apple Tart) (Printable recipe)

from A Treasury of Great Recipes by Mary and Vincent Price (1965)

Ingredients

• 1-1/4 cup flour
• 4 Tablespoons sugar
• 1 stick butter, sliced
• 2 egg yolks
• pinch of salt
• grated rind of one lemon
• 3 apples, peeled, cored and sliced
• 12 ounces apricot preserves
• powdered sugar for garnish

Directions

Preheat oven to 425F.

Sift the flour onto a pastry board.  Make a well in the center and add the sugar, butter, egg yolks, salt and lemon rind.  Work the center ingredients into a paste, then knead in the flour.  Form dough into a ball, wrap in waxed paper and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

On a lightly floured board, roll out 2/3 of the dough and transfer to an 8-inch tart pan.  Trim overhanging edges.  Fill about 2/3 full with the apple slices.  Spread with the apricot preserves.

Roll out remaining pastry thinly and cut into strips 1/2 inch wide.  Arrange 10 strips lattice-fashion over filling and trim overhanging edges.  Place a strip all around the edge of the filling and flute this with the bottom layer of pastry.

Bake for 15 minutes.  Reduce oven temperature to 350F and bake for 30 minutes longer.  Remove from oven and sprinkle with powdered sugar.  Serve warm.

Bakewell Tart

I first read about Bakewell tarts about a year ago and I've been obsessed with them ever since.  A pastry crust spread with jam and then topped with an almond sponge.  I couldn't imagine how it could be bad!  However, I was convinced that they would be really hard to make.  Today I finally decided to really read the recipe and it turned out to be pretty simple.  It would have been even easier if my scale hadn't decided to run out of battery life in the middle of my measuring. To be fair to Scale, the battery must be at least 8 years old, but it would have been nice if it could have held on for a few more minutes.

For the recipe, I turned to my 1963 edition of Mrs. Beeton's Everyday Cookery. I found it locally and bought it with the idea that I would sell it, but it ended up moving into my bookshelf permanently.  I really don't know how that keeps happening!

So many other interesting looking desserts!

The recipe calls for a 7" flan ring or pie plate, but I have a thin, two-piece tart pan that needed to get out of the cabinet.  I think it's about 8" in diameter, so it seemed like a good fit.  I wasn't sure if the pastry was meant to be rolled out or just patted into the pan, so I decided to just pat it in.  That seemed to work just fine and I was able to easily remove the tart from the pan after it had baked.

In searching for other recipes, I noticed that some of the older ones called for bread crumbs instead of the cake crumbs.  I had two leftover biscuits, so I cut the crusty bits off of them and ground them in the food processor with the almonds. 

Since I had the food processor out and had already used it for the crust and to grind the almonds, I decided to mix the sponge in there, too.   Normally I don't worry about messing up the kitchen because Farm Boy does the cleanup, but since his birthday is coming up, I thought I would be nice to him. 

We really liked this!  The crust is tender and crumbly.  The filling tastes of almonds and is only slightly sweet.  The jam provides a nice, tart contrast without overwhelming the almond flavor.  It was really nice with afternoon coffee and I think it would be absolutely perfect with a cup of tea.  I may have to test that tomorrow with the leftovers.

Bakewell Tart (Printable Recipe)
from the 1963 edition of Mrs. Beeton's Everyday Cookery

Shortcrust pastry ingredients:
6 ounces flour
3 ounces butter
pinch salt
cold water

Directions:
Stir the flour and salt together.  Cut or rub the butter into the flour, then add enough cold water to make a stiff paste.  (I used the food processor and drizzled water in until the dough formed a ball.)  Pat into a small pie plate or tart pan.

Filling ingredients:
raspberry jam
2 ounces butter
2 ounces sugar
1 egg
2 ounces ground almonds
2 ounces cake crumbs
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
3 tablespoons sliced almonds
 powdered sugar, for dusting

Directions:
Line a 7-inch flan ring or pie plate with the pastry.  Place a good layer of raspberry jam on the bottom.  Cream together the butter and sugar until thick and white.  Beat in the egg and add the ground almonds, cake crumbs and almond extract.  Spread the mixture on top of the jam.  Top with the sliced almonds.  Bake in a fairly hot oven (400F) for about 30 minutes.

Sprinkle powdered sugar on top and serve hot or cold.

Serves 5 to 6.