Best Pear And Apple Crostata With Five Spice Whipped Cream Recipes

APPLE CROSTATA

Steps:

• For the pastry, place the flour, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Pulse a few times to combine. Add the butter and pulse 12 to 15 times, or until the butter is the size of peas. With the motor running, add the ice water all at once through the feed tube. Keep hitting the pulse button to combine, but stop the machine just before the dough becomes a solid mass. Turn the dough onto a well-floured board and form into a disk. Wrap with plastic and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
• Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.
• Flour a rolling pin and roll the pastry into an 11-inch circle on a lightly floured surface. Transfer it to a baking sheet.
• For the filling, peel, core, and cut the apples into 8ths. Cut each wedge into 3 chunks. Toss the chunks with the orange zest. Cover the tart dough with the apple chunks leaving a 1 1/2-inch border.
• Combine the flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon, and allspice in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture is crumbly. Pour into a bowl and rub it with your fingers until it starts holding together. Sprinkle evenly on the apples. Gently fold the border over the apples to enclose the dough, pleating it to make a circle.
• Bake the crostata for 20 to 25 minutes, until the crust is golden and the apples are tender. Allow to cool. Serve warm or at room temperature.

APPLE CROSTATA WITH SPICED CARAMEL SAUCE

Steps:

• Make dough:
• Blend together flour, sugar, salt, zest, and butter in a bowl with your fingertips or a pastry blender (or pulse in a food processor) until mixture resembles coarse meal. Whisk together egg and vanilla in a small bowl and drizzle over flour mixture, then gently stir with a fork (or pulse) until incorporated and dough begins to form large clumps.
• Gather all dough together, then divide dough in half and form each half into a 5- to 6-inch disk. Chill, wrapped in plastic wrap, until more firm, but not hard, about 30 minutes.
• Make filling while dough chills:
• Melt butter in a heavy, wide 6- to 8-quart pot over medium-high heat. Stir in brown sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon, salt, and apples, and cook, uncovered, stirring and turning apples over occasionally, until apples soften and juices thicken and begin to caramelize, 10 to 15 minutes (lower heat if apple mixture browns too quickly). Transfer to a shallow bowl and chill until cooled.
• Assemble crostata:
• Heat oven to 350°F with rack in middle. Invert bottom of springform pan (to make it easier to slide crostata off bottom), then lock pan. Generously butter springform pan and chill or freeze briefly to firm up butter.
• Press one disk of dough evenly onto bottom and 1 inch up side of pan (use the smooth bottom of a metal measuring cup to help make it even). Chill tart shell.
• Roll out remaining disk of dough between 2 sheets of wax paper into a 10-inch round (dough will be very tender). Peel off top sheet of paper, then cut dough into 10 (3/4-inch-wide) strips and slide (still on paper) onto a baking sheet. Chill until firm, about 15 minutes in refrigerator or 5 minutes in freezer.
• Spoon apple filling in shell, distributing slices evenly. Arrange 5 strips of dough parallel to each other, 1 inch apart, on filling, trimming edges flush with edge of pan (dough will tear easily; patch any breaks with fingers). Arrange remaining 5 strips diagonally across first strips, 1 inch apart, to form a lattice, and trim edges.
• Gather remaining dough and roll into several long, 1/4-inch-thick ropes. Press enough ropes around edge of crostata in a single layer, smoothing seams with fingers, to form an even edge (you will have a little dough left over).
• Bake crostata until pastry is pale golden, 50 minutes to 1 hour.
• Near end of baking, heat apricot preserves with 1 teaspoon water in a small saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring, until melted, then strain through a sieve into a small bowl.
• When crostata is done, brush top with warm apricot glaze. Let cool completely in pan on a wire rack, then remove side of pan.
• Make caramel sauce while crostata bakes:
• Heat cream in a small saucepan over medium heat until it just begins to simmer, then remove from heat and keep hot, covered.
• Stir sugars together with 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice in a heavy 2 1/2- to 3-quart saucepan, then cook undisturbed over medium heat until mixture is partially melted (reduce heat if mixture turns dark around edge). Continue to cook, stirring occasionally with a fork, until completely melted and mixture is a deep golden caramel.
• Carefully pour in hot cream (mixture will bubble up and caramel may harden slightly) and quickly whisk in pumpkin pie spice and salt. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring, until caramel is dissolved and sauce is reduced to about 1 cup, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and whisk in butter until melted. Transfer to a glass measure to let cool slightly.
• To serve, either slide crostata from pan bottom onto a flat serving plate or serve on pan bottom.

PEAR AND FRANGIPANE CROSTATA

Steps:

• Make the dough: Heat oven to 375 degrees. In a stand mixer or in a bowl with a sturdy whisk, beat together sugar, salt, eggs and butter. Fold in flour and knead the dough into a ball. Squash the dough into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour or up to 2 days before using. (Dough can also be frozen up to 2 months.) Roll out dough using a lightly floured rolling pin or press dough into a 10-inch French tart pan. Freeze or refrigerate tart shell while you make the filling. (It is not necessary to blind bake the tart shell.)
• Make the filling: Whisk together almonds, sugar, butter, egg yolks and whole egg until creamy, then whisk in rum and almond extract.
• Spread the frangipane batter evenly over the bottom of tart shell, and arrange pear slices over in a circular pattern. Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons sugar. Bake at 375 degrees, for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 degrees. (If pastry is browning too quickly, loosely cover edges with foil.) Bake for 25 to 30 minutes until golden but not too dark and a toothpick pushed into the center of the tart comes out clean. If it doesn't, bake a few minutes longer.

PEAR, APPLE, AND QUINCE CROSTATA

Steps:

• Make roasted fruit:
• Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 375°F.
• Peel, quarter, and core pears, apples, and quince, then cut into 1-inch chunks. Toss fruit with sugar, lemon juice, ginger, cinnamon stick, cloves, and 1 tablespoon apple cider in a bowl. Transfer to a large shallow baking pan (17 by 12 inches) and roast, stirring once or twice, until fruit is very soft and caramelized, 1 to 1 1/4 hours.
• Remove from oven and add remaining tablespoon apple cider, scraping up caramelized juices from bottom of baking pan. Discard cinnamon stick and cloves. Cool in pan on a rack, about 45 minutes.
• Make pastry shell while fruit roasts:
• Whisk together flour, salt, and 2 tablespoons sugar in a large bowl. Blend in butter with your fingertips or a pastry blender (or pulse in a food processor) until mixture resembles coarse meal with some roughly pea-size butter lumps. Drizzle evenly with 6 tablespoons ice water and gently stir with a fork (or pulse) until incorporated.
• Squeeze a small handful: If dough doesn't hold together, add more ice water to dough, 1 tablespoon at a time, stirring (or pulsing) until just combined. (Do not overwork mixture, or pastry will be tough.)
• Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 6 portions. With heel of your hand, smear each portion once or twice in a forward motion to help distribute fat. Gather all of dough together with scraper and press into a ball, then flatten into a disk. Chill dough, wrapped tightly in plastic wrap, until firm, at least 1 hour.
• Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface with a lightly floured rolling pin into a 14-inch round, then fit into tart pan (do not trim).
• Make brown sugar filling:
• Put a large baking sheet in middle of oven and preheat oven to 375°F.
• Beat together butter and sugars in a large bowl using an electric mixer at high speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition, then beat in vanilla. Reduce speed to low, then add flour and a pinch of salt and mix until just combined. Spread evenly in pastry shell.
• Assemble and bake pastry:
• Scatter roasted fruit with juices over filling. Fold edge of pastry over filling to partially cover (center won't be covered). Pleat dough as necessary. Brush folded pastry edge lightly with egg and sprinkle with remaining tablespoon sugar.
• Bake on preheated baking sheet until filling is puffed and set and pastry is golden brown, 50 to 60 minutes. Cool to warm, about 1 1/2 hours. Remove side of tart pan and slide crostata onto a plate.