Rustic Apple Pie and Shadow Art 6WS

Out of bread again, and as usual wondering what sort to make. Not in the mood for actual yeast bread making, nor hot biscuits, but I found, via their Twitter feed, a  recipe from The Splendid Table  for Rustic Rosemary Apple Tart.  For which go here

That seemed pretty simple, no cutting and crimping, etc., and was a bit like clafouti, which I like a lot.  And involved fresh rosemary of which I have plenty.  And cooking apples of which I had a couple. So I embarked on it.

Now, in case you fancy trying it, be forewarned: rustic does not mean fast cooking.  In fact I am thinking of recommending a whole new way of presenting recipes.  You know how they name it, tell you why you will love it, list the ingredients,  then explain the procedure? 

One huge missing element is: the number and range of tools this simple item will require.  Then you could decide if it's worth it.  The way you look at a list of ingredients and decide if you're up for that many.  To some of us this is an issue.

Here is evidence:  this is the dish drainer containing nothing but the items required to make this rustic tart.  And it doesn't include the big bowls and knives I had washed and dried and put away already. Just sayin.  I did get to use my rolling pin and pastry cutter, which was good.  And my pastry scraper. And apple corer. And peeler. And pizza cutter.

That said, however, I did achieve a result that looked something like their picture, if a bit more rectangular

And had a first slice with afternoon tea.  With the Yorkshire tradition of a big slice of extra sharp cheddar on the side.

And found it was absolutely terrific.  My first shot at flaky pastry, and it was crisp and flaky and perfectly wonderful.  The apples were those Crisp whatevers, even better than Granny Smith, never thought I'd say that, and the tart works like a fruit Danish for breakfast, too.

Of course, being me, there were substitutions.  They wanted heavy cream and I said no, no, and used plain yogurt, needed a bit more than the recipe said, and it worked fine. And you could have used cinnamon, but rosemary is much better, so I used that. They don't mention parchment paper, but after a couple of annoying encounters of the sticking kind recently with the baking sheet, I did, and that was a good idea.

Handsome son is dropping by this afternoon and will also get to test this one.  It's about making and resting the pastry, and is a lengthy procedure largely because of all the waiting for the pastry to wake up, but now I think it's worth doubling the pastry recipe and freezing some for future use. This "simple" rustic recipe reminds me of those endless beauty regimens with the goal of looking natural..

Incidentally I think it's not fair when one of the list of ingredients is: one recipe of Flaky Pastry! which is another whole recipe in itself.  But okay, okay, the results are good enough to print this one out and put it in my Big Binder. 

And while I was polishing my nails on my lapel and gawking around vacantly while the pastry rested, I noticed the sun had come out, was shining through the hanging plants, and making a natural artwork on the green wall.