It was so nice to have Monday off work for Presidents' Day so I could have an extra day to finish some errands. But when life hands you a free day, you shouldn't just spend it running errands; so I decided to do a little cooking. We all know I'll take any excuse to celebrate and a holiday as seemingly pointless as Presidents' Day is enough to get me thinking about a special dish.
I decided I needed to honor our presidents with something all-American and immediately thought of apple pie. I was a little daunted by the idea of making a crust from scratch - that's too much baking for me and the type of thing I always mess up. Instead, I decided to make an easy version of a French-style tart. I unrolled some puff pastry (one of the greatest things to be found in the freezer section) and topped it with apple slices that I had peeled and tossed with lemon juice, brown sugar, and a pinch of salt. Why did I use brown sugar instead of regular sugar and cinnamon? Because that's what I had in the house and I found a recipe saying it would work so it meant one less ingredient to buy. After arranging the apple slices on the pastry, I brushed the edges with an egg wash so it would get that gorgeous brown color. Then I baked it for about 20 minutes at 415 and that was it.
It's amazing how presentable this dessert looks for how little effort it requires. Want to make it look even more impressive? You have a couple garnish options: drizzle with caramel, dust with powdered sugar, a dollop of whipped cream here, a scoop of ice cream there...any combination of these accoutrements will work. After I spotted a dark chocolate salted caramel sauce in the grocery store, I knew I found the perfect topping. Soooo good and made even better by my sprinkling of powdered sugar.
Forget the prez; with this dessert, I'm pretty sure I could run the country.
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| Just out of the oven |
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| After I scandalized it with toppings |
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