Catch-up post #4: apple tart

I've lost the cookbook reviewing thread of this blog in recent months and one of my goals of the autumn is to get back on track. I'll do a few more days of Stir and then start something new on Wednesday with a burst of first-day-of school enthusiasm.

This is the Stir apple tart I took to my father's house the other night. Modest hit. At top you can see the tart pre-broiling: paper thin apple slices arrayed atop tangy apple butter spread atop a baked puff pastry shell. The puff pastry is store-bought, per Barbara Lynch's instructions.

Here's the tart a few minutes later

after I ran it under the broiler and wandered away for 30 seconds too long. I had to trim off a burnt edge, but the tart was otherwise, as my sister archly put it, "elegant."

"Elegant" was one of our mother's favorite adjectives, by which she meant something very fine and restrained and severe and admirable and fundamentally antithetical to her own effusive, expressive personality. She sometimes tried to be elegant, but taupe just never came naturally to her. "Elegant" describes this tart perfectly. The crust was thin and flaky, the fruity embellishment minimal and not overly sweet. Some people love desserts that are not overly sweet and they will love this tart. I feel that not overly sweet=not adequately sweet, and while I appreciated and admired this elegant pastry, I won't make it again.

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