Apple Pear Cranberry Crumble Tart
To help contribute to the Thanksgiving feast, I was asked to bring a pie. I thought long and hard about which pie to bring, and after several days I couldn’t find a recipe that seemed to fit what I had in mind. So I made my own. That’s right, this dessert is 100% me. Before I started culinary school I never would have even dreamed of trying something on my own. I’ve always been fairly good with food, but only with explicit directions to follow. Now, however, I’m a lot more confident and have been branching out and experimenting with things.
These days when Steve comes home from work and asks me what I’m making for dinner, I shrug and say I don’t know, I’m making something up. He looks skeptical until we sit down and eat. Thank you, culinary school. It’s a lot of fun, actually, not being tied down to recipes, to be able to look in the fridge, see some stuff and find a way to make it all come together.
Anyway, back to the pie. I wanted something with fruit and decided to use cranberries, and I thought adding pears would be nice. And I really like crumble topping so I wanted to incorporate that, and I wanted to use my new tart pan so I decided to use that…and it just sort of came together in my head. I did look at several recipes as a guide, but I’m still going to claim this recipe as my own. It turned out really well, I thought it was delicious, and I got lots of compliments. I ended up making two tarts and I wish I had made three so I could have had one all to myself!
Apple Pear Cranberry Crumble Tart
Ingredients
For the crust:
- ⅓ cup + 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2-3 tablespoons cold water
For the filling:
- 1 cup cranberries
- 2 apples
- 2 pears
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoon all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
For the crumble topping:
- ⅓ cup all-purpose flour
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup old-fashioned rolled oats
- ⅓ cup unsalted butter
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ cup toasted almonds
Instructions
To make the crust:
- Combine the salt and flour. Cut in the shortening with a knife or pastry cutter until the pieces are the size of peas. Add the water slowly (you may not need it all) until the dough just comes together.
- Form into a ball and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Roll out dough and place in the bottom of a 9 inch tart pan with a removable bottom. You can also use a pie pan if you wish.
To make the filling:
- Mix ingredients until combined. Pour into prepared pie shell.
To make the crumble topping:
- Mix the crumble ingredients, cutting the butter into the dry ingredients. Sprinkle over tart. Bake at 350°F for one hour or until juices bubble.
I totally love the feeling of not being tied down to a recipe as well. Right now I am making up some butternut squash soup. We’ll see how it turns out! All things considered I really have learned a lot in school.
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