Chez Nous
Dessert

Apple Flag Tart

Directions

1. In a bowl stir together flour, sugar, salt, and cinnamon. With a pastry blender or fingertips blend in butter, blending until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add cold water to mixture, 1 tablespoon at a time, tossing to incorporate until the mixture forms a dough. On a work surface, knead dough 5-6 times to develop the gluten in the flour a little and to make the dough easier to handle. Scrape the dough together and form into an 8- by 6-inch rectangle. Chill dough, wrapped in plastic wrap, 30 minutes.

2. Reserve 1 apple for making starts. Peel, quarter and core remaining 4 apples and cut lengthwise into scant 1/4-inch slices.

3. For stars, stand reserved apple on its stem end and starting from the outside, cut scant 1/4-inch slices, rotating the apple to cut more slices as you reach the core. With a 1 1/4-inch start-shaped cookie cutter, cut out as many whole stars as possible from slices and then cut partial stars from scraps.

4. In a food processor pulse fresh or frozen cranberries with cup sugar until chopped fine.

5. Preheat oven to 400 F.

6. On a lightly floured surface roll dough into a 14- by 17-inch rectangle and transfer it to a large baking sheet. Fold each of the outside edges toward the center 1/2 inch to form a slightly raised border around tart. Spread cranberry mixture inside the border. Leaving a rectangular space in the upper left-hand corner for the stars, arrange apple slices into lengthwise stripes, overlapping them. Apples will shrink slightly during baking so allow for that when laying out the stripes. Arrange partial stars around the edge of the rectangular area and top with whole stars. Brush the edge of the pastry with water and sprinkle entire tart with remaining 1/4 cup sugar.

7. Bake tart for 50 minutes or until apples are tender and pastry is golden brown. Cool tart on a baking sheet on a rack.

8. For the glaze, heat both jellies in a small saucepan over moderate heat, stirring frequently until smooth. Brush hot glaze over warm tart and serve.

Ingredients

Pastry Dough
Glaze