Yesterday was a mostly well day in our house. After my oldest came down with the flu Saturday night we welcomed the chance to not have fevers and took the day as an extra "make sure we're really well" day before sending him back to school. 48 hours fever free I felt more than fine sending him to school today, especially because I knew his appetite was back too.
Last week we had ventured to the library as a family, and when we do I always take advantage of my husband watching the littles for a few minutes so I can head over to my favorite section, cookbooks. I scoop up more than I can handle and load them up until I can't carry anymore. The library is a great place to try out some cookbooks and see if I'd really want to invest in the cookbook itself.
On this particular visit I got an Instant Pot cookbook, one with all recipes for using my cast iron, a Pati Jinich book, one from Sunset Magazine, a publication that makes me miss the west far too much, and a newer Pioneer Woman cookbook.
My oldest has gotten into watching cooking shows with me and has the biggest sweet tooth by far in the family. He requested we make this apple tart and knowing we'd be home for several days, I obliged. I made sure he was eating more than toast of course before we started this undertaking and had him read me the recipe as well. No school doesn't mean you're completely off the hook.
This recipe hails from Pioneer Woman and will remind you that you should always have puff pastry in your freezer. I love simple desserts like this and can imagine how easy it would be to do this with berries in the summer time. I'm always game for apple desserts though and love how easily this came together.
Apart from the puff pastry, this will show you for sundae night, you should always make caramel sauce. I probably shouldn't start having this as a stable in my home because it's my weakness, but oh my YUM. I bet you have all the ingredients on hand, minus the heavy cream.
When I'm cooking a lot I tend to throw buttermilk and cream in my shopping cart too. It's not always the healthiest choice, but it always results in something delicious.
SO, for the recipe. My only tips would be that you could use less sugar. Next time I think I'd only use 1/2 cup so I'm going to include that version for you here. The caramel sauce makes a lot- so make it knowing you're going to want to have it for the weekend on top of ice cream sundaes. We've gotten in the habit of having them each Friday with pizza and it's worked for our family. It also means I don't have kids asking me nonstop if we're having dessert because they know we have it on Friday.
Recipe loosely adapted from Pioneer Woman
For the tart:
- 1 sheet frozen puff pastry- thawed in a plastic bag 24 hours before baking in the fridge
- 3 Granny Smith apples, cored and thinly sliced
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- juice of half a lemon
- chopped pecans for sprinkling over top
For the Caramel Sauce
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- pinch of salt
For the tart:
- Preheat your oven to 425. Make sure you've thawed your puff pastry!
- Slice the pastry in half to form 2 rectangles and place it on a silpat lined baking sheet.
- In a bowl combined the apples, lemon juice, salt, and brown sugar
- lay the apples in the middle of the pastry, allowing some edge as a border.
- Bake in the lower half of your oven for 20 minutes. While it's baking, make the caramel sauce.
For the sauce- combine the brown sugar and heavy cream in a saucepan over medium heat. Next, add in the cream and butter then the vanilla and pinch of salt. Whisk often and let it boil 2-3 minutes. Remove from the heat then allow to cool 5 minutes before transferring to a jar.
I should probably add vanilla ice cream to the list of ingredients, but I trust you understand that goes without saying. Happy baking- but more so, happy eating!
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