Who You Calling a Tartlet?

So, remember that spiced thumbprint cookie for Patty Chang Anker and the launch of her new book, Some Nerve?   

The one filled with dark chocolate and crystallized ginger?  It was a hit! 

I realized pretty quickly that the cookie part itself would probably make a good crust for a tart, and my thoughts turned to apples…soon I had these little apple tartlets dancing in my mind.  Why bake a whole tart when you can make dozens of cute, delicious little ones? Like this:

Just in time for Thanksgiving and all things fall, I put together this cookie and entered it in the Hasting's Farmer's Market annual pie contest.  Ever outside the box, I had to improvise…couldn’t call it a cookie if it was going to be in a pie contest, right?  So, it’s a tartlet.* 

*  My friend, Marty, pointed out that maybe I should spell it “tartlette” instead of “tartlet,” to avoid confusion with a certain disreputable kind of woman.   And I considered his advice for .50 seconds before deciding that such confusion is even better!  Let’s get tarted up, my friends!

Tartlet Crust:

1.5 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature

½ cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon ground ginger

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

¼ teaspoon salt

1 ¼ cups quick-cooking oats

First things first:  preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and line your baking sheets with parchment paper. 

Cream:

Butter sugar, and vanilla

Let the mix with a high-speed mixer on medium-to-high for about 2 minutes, until the ingredients are fluffy.

Add:

Slow the mixer and add the flour, spices, and salt.  After these are folded together, turn the mixer to a high speed and beat until well mixed.  Turn the mixer off and scrape down the sides of the bowl.  Next, turn the mixer to a low speed and add the oats until completely folded into the dough.

Now you’re ready to form the tartlets.  Using a teaspoon, scoop out the dough and form it into a ball by rolling it between the palms of your hands.  Place the balls of dough 1.5 to 2 inches apart on the baking sheet.  Once the baking sheet is full, use the backside of a ¼ teaspoon measure and make an indentation into the middle of each cookie.  You are making a bowl in the dough.  While baking, it will flatten out significantly, but still leave enough of a rim to hold in the apple filling.

Bake the tartlets for 13 minutes—they should be just turning golden on the edges.   

While the tartlets are baking, start the apple filling.  Once the tartlets are done baking, let them cook for about 5 minutes before filling with the apple mixture.

Apple filling

(This filling is based on the Apple Gallette recipe in Cook’s Illustrated.  I’ve modified it to work with my tartlet crust instead of the traditional French gallette crust.)

≅ 3 apples (about 1 pound).  (I used Cortland, Empire, and McIntosh from a local orchard,
The Orchards of Concklin.)

1-2 tablespoons unsalted butter cut into small pieces

1/8 cup sugar

3 tablespoons apple jelly from Wright’s Farm (www.eatapples.com)

crème fraîche or whipped cream

Core and peel the apples, and then slice them into quarters.  

Simmer the apples for about 20 min. in a sauce pan with the butter, sugar, and apple jelly, until the mixture has thickened and the apples are softened but not gooey or translucent.   

MMMMmmmm....apple jelly from Wright's Farm

Spoon the apple filling into the tartlets by the teaspoonful.  Let the tartlets cool for about 10 minutes, and if you’re feeling fancy (and who isn’t?), top each tartlet with a little fresh whipped cream or crème fraîche. 

Enjoy. Share. Repeat.

P.S.

Thanksgiving trifecta coming soon…pumpkin pie cookie and chocolate pecan pie cookie to complete the set…
P.P.S
My "tartlets" (ok, ok, they were cookies) didn't win the pie contest, BUT, Pascale Le Draoulec, who runs the Hastings Farmer's Market, said this:  "The judges LOVED your cookies, Adrian, and said they would have def. won a cookie competition, but not a pie competition."  Good enough for me!  Can't blame the judges for picking a pie to win the pie contest.  At least I didn't enter a cat in a dog show. Yet.