I had a few apples lying around that needed to be put to good use. I decided to make a quick apple crostata earlier this week and the results were delicious. Those who have a hard time making pie crust look pretty, this recipe is for you. Simple to assemble and minimal finesse needed to make the crostata look good, anyone can make this dessert. Think of this as an open face pie, no other explanation necessary.
For Crust
3/4 cup ap flour
3/4 cup almond flour
1 stick of unsalted cold butter cut into cubes
1 tsp of fine salt
4-6 tbsp of cold water
For Filling
4 medium-large apples; I used a combination of granny green and rome apples
1/4 cup of brown sugar
1/4 cup of white sugar
Juice from one lemon
1 tbsp of cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
Assemble crust; sift together all dry ingredients. Cut the cold butter into the flour mixture until the butter becomes pearl sized. Slowly add cold water a tablespoon at a time to the mixture until it starts to form into a dough. Transfer the dough into a piece of plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least a half an hour.
Assemble filling; peel and slices apples into 1/4 inch thick pieces. Combine sugars and spices together. Combine apples, spice/sugar mix and lemon juice. Place in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to allow the apples to macerate.
Preheat oven to 375º. Flour a clean and dry service. Place dough onto floured surface and knead a few times until it is covered nicely in flour. Flour your rolling pin and begin to roll dough out from the center to the outer corners. This doesn't need to look perfect, this dish is much more rustic in it's feeling. Once you get the dough to about a ten inch diameter, add the apple mixture to the center of the dough. You want to keep the mixture mostly in the center and leave about three inches around the perimeter to be free to allow you to fold the crust over.
Start to fold the dough over the apples overlapping the dough as you move around in a circle. Once you have gone all the way around the circle go back around and push any dough pieces that were sticking up down into the filing.
Place the crostata onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Place in oven and bake for 25 minutes. Rotate the sheet and turn oven heat down to 325º and bake fore 20 more minutes. Remove from over and allow to cool for 15 minutes.
