twd: parisian apple tartlets

This recipe is utter simplicity: a small round of puff pastry, half of an apple or stone fruit, brown sugar, and butter. Arrange, bake, eat.

And so, I decided to complicate matters.

By making homemade puff pastry. Not the elaborate ultra laminated kind, but a quick puff pastry. Thanks to Barbara, who posted a link to Nick Malgieri's version on the TWD website, I was able to make my own butter-laden crust in no time. The recipe was simple, but I had to improvise and mix the dough by hand, as the only food processor I have is a mini-prep, which is too small for even half a recipe of pastry. C'est la Vie!



I called up my friends T and J, whose farm I'm working on this summer, and invited them over for a Sunday evening snack. I assembled the treats about an hour before they arrived, popped them in the oven, and hoped for the best.

My puff pastry, while delicious, rich, flaky, and crisp, never puffed all that much. And, because it didn't puff around the edges of the peaches, the sugar melted out into a molten, ultra-caramelized (nay, burned) river surrounding the mini tarts, and blackening their outer bottom edges.



No matter--a few scoops of my vanilla ice cream saved the day.



T and J, who are foodies and honest critics, were very impressed. T declared the crust perfectly flaky, and J said it was delicious, even though she doesn't like crust. We sipped decaf coffee and tea, and swapped stories. T and J are relatively new friends, and it's fun to hear their history and begin to form the foundation of real friendship.

Thanks to Jessica of My Baking Heart for choosing this delightful recipe.