Apple Tart & The World's Easiest Dough

Having discovered the wild world of baking in my late 30s, I've reached an age where I prize speed and convenience above most other things, especially when it comes to hitting the kitchen. That's why this dough is the best for banging out delicious baked goods fast, like this apple tart on the right here that I knocked out tonight.

Mixer needed? Nope! Have to knead? Nope! Need to firm it up in the fridge? Nope! You just make it and throw it in the oven. Though you might want to put it in a pan first.

As to the apple tart, I highly, highly, highly recommend using the supremely sweet Fuji apple. Now, you might be reticent, you might have had plenty of success over the years with other apples in your apple pies, you might have a deep abiding affair going with a Macintosh or Braeburn or Gala - heck, for all I know, you might be deeply prejudiced against all things New Zealand - but trust me, when it comes to a great apple tart, the Fuji is the way to go. It's at the top end of the sweetness spectrum of apples and lemme tell ya, it sure holds up well during the baking process.

Other than that, you just need a food processor, as well as a tart pan to cook it in, though you can wing it with an affordable aluminum pie pan from your friendly neighborhood grocery store (do those exist in New Jersey?).

Recipe:

• .75 C all purpose flour
• 1.75 C whole wheat pastry flour (I cannot emphasize enough that you must use pastry flour, the regular whole wheat flour just tastes awful in baked goods, if you don't have any, just use 1.5 C all purpose flour, it'll be a bit less healthy but taste great)
• .25 C granulated sugar
• .5 tsp baking powder
• .5 tsp lemon/orange zest
• 7 tb unsalted butter softened
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 1/4 C preserves (I dig the apricot jelly, you can find it at almost any grocery store)
• 1 Fuji apple cut into wafer slices

1. Preheat: Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. By the way, I highly recommend scooping up an oven thermometer at your local kitchen wares emporium. After finally buying one I made the infamous discovery that the actual temperature in my oven is about 25 degrees hotter than the dial setting. Sheesh.

2. Food processor: Chuck on in there your flour, sugar, baking powder, zest, and butter. Pulse it on up. Add the egg . . . and . . . pulse it on up. Throw in the yolk . . . and . . . pulse it on up. You should be seeing a soft dough form by now. Did I mention the need to pulse it on up?

3. Counter: Scatter some flour on your counter top and drop the dough on it. Pat it together, and if it doesn't come together enough, sprinkle a tablespoon of water on it and you'll be in business.

4. Pan: Next, just drop the whole thing in the tart pan. Mash it down in the middle and use your fingers to work it up the sides.

5. Preserves: Spread the preserves on the dough, save yourself about 2 tablespoons.

6. Apple Slices: Arrange apple slices in a concentric circle. If you have a really small apple, you can get away with a groovy inner circle (where only VIPs will be allowed to eat), but with a typical apple, you'll just need to fill in the middle a bit as in the picture above.

7. Oven: Bake for 20 minutes and take it on out.

8. More Preserves: Spoon the remaining preserves over the apples.

9. Oven: Bake another 20 minutes or so until the crust is golden. Feel free to dust it with confectioner's sugar, but definitely let it cool first.

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Wines Under $20

Cheers, Orson! Here's 6 terrific wines I'd recommend (none are before their time):

Whites:

• Leitz Eins Zwei Dry Riesling (Germany 2009). Amazing bouquet, just superb. You'll hear the Gap Band playing "You Dropped a Bomb on Me" when you drink this.
• Henry Varnay Blanc De Blanc NV (France 2009). It looks like champagne. It smells like champagne. And it tastes like a terrific, affordable champagne. It's not champagne, so you save money and still enjoy the experience.
• Gobelsburger Kamptal Gruner Veltliner (Austria 2009). While we're on bubbly wines, enjoy this effervescent one, very nice.
• Domaine du Grand Moulin Loire Sauvingnon Blanc (France 2009). Terrific bouquet.

Reds:

• Atticus John Cabernet Sauvignon (Napa Valley 2009). Nice, big red with a very smooth finish.
• Otto's Constant Dream (OCD) Syrah (New Zealand 2009). Very smooth Syrah without a sharp finish so you don't wince once it goes down. You will have to resist the urge to think of it as obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) Syrah.

All Hail the SodaStream

I have a bit of a fear of properly using the word "hail" - sometimes I have a tendency to think I'm saying something like "All shall pelt the SodaStream with icy frozen orbs from the sky." Luckily, I seem to have it right today, and it's acclaim that's well deserved for the SodaStream, a terrific product we recently picked up for our kitchen which quickly turns ordinary water into club soda.

The SodaStream comes with carbonation canisters. You pop a canister and a bottle of water in the device, press a lever a few times, and bingo, you have soda. It doesn't require electricity, is easy to use, and we think their Penguin model makes for a nice looking addition to our kitchen technologies. Plus, it's great not to have to lug heavy bottles back from the grocery store anymore, or to sadly pine for seltzer when there's no more left in the fridge.

Just so you know, I get absolutely zero bucks for singing their praises. Which is a bit of a shame. Alas. You can check out their website here, and the base model runs for $99.99, though you can find it for a bit cheaper on Google Shopping here.

Tale of Two Marinades

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The routinely exciting Alinea at Home has a fun post up about making Octopus with eggplant ice cream and beans. I was entranced by her tale of two marinades. For the eggplant, she used ginger juice, chilies, cardamom powder, soy sauce, red wine, garlic, sugar, and water. For the octopus, she used "soy sauce, mirin, sugar, rice vinegar, dry red wine, garlic, and fresh ginger -- all brought to a simmer, then allowed to cool to room temperature."
Read it here.

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The Twist Cut

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I just thought this twist cut was so gorgeous I'd point you to Just Bento so you could find out how to do it yourself. Click here.

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Napoleon Plays with Tomatoes at Waterloo

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Pen and Fork has a nice post up on how to make a Tomato Napoleon (otherwise known as a mille feuille) using heirloom tomatoes, puff pastry, and goat cheese. Looks fantastic. Check it out here.

I wonder what this guy would have to say about it ("I want to take over the world . . . oh . . . Napoleons! Let's eat.")

Apparently, the dessert has no connection with the former Emperor.

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The New Orleans Buck

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It's time for our first ever cocktail here at Ravenous Pluto. Tonight I imbibed a New Orleans Buck for the first time, and I have to say, "Highly recommended."

Very little to it:

• 1.5 oz. Rum
• .5 oz. OJ
• .5 oz. Lime Juice
• 2 Dashes Bitters
• Ginger Ale

Fill an 8 oz. glass with ice. Except for the ginger ale, shake all the ingredients above and strain into the glass. Fill the glass with ginger ale and stir it up. Garnish with a slice of lime.

Delicious. Refreshing. Nice.

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