Crostata di mela e mirtilli
I can’t be the only one! When my husband and I arrived at the condo we had rented in Madeira Beach, he rushed to the balcony to see the view of the ocean and I checked out the kitchen! When I’m vacationing, baking becomes an exciting challenge! What can I make that doesn’t use a lot of ingredients and utensils, doesn’t take too much time to make, and fills that need for a comforting homemade dessert? Crostata - hands down!! It uses very few utensils and ingredients and always results in an impressive treat! I have to admit that you need a “good enough” attitude when baking on holidays attitude because you’ll need to find substitutions for almost everything! I didn’t mind that there wasn’t a big bowl to mix everything. I used a drinking glass for a rolling pin. Instead of my usual apricot jam that I use to spread on the crust, I stole some of my husband’s favourite blueberry jam! It actually worked really well with the handful of fresh blueberries that I mixed in with the apple slices I used.I didn’t have a pretty tray to serve the crostata and I didn’t have icing sugar to sift over the crust before serving, but I did have a good quality vanilla ice cream! Good enough!
Ingredients
Crust
- 2½ cups all-purpose flour plus more as needed
- 2 tsp granulated sugar
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 cup unsalted butter chilled and cubed
- ½ cup ice-cold water plus more as needed
- Juice of ½ lemon
- little milk and sugar to use just before baking
Filling
- 4 apples peeled, cored, sliced thinly (I used Honeycrisp because that’s all I had.)
- 1 cup fresh blueberries
- 4 tbsp sugar
- 1 tbsp flour
- Juice of ½ lemon
- ¼ tsp cinnamon
- 2 tbsp blueberry jam
- 2 tbsp butter
Instructions
Make Crust
- Mix flour, sugar, and salt together in large bowl. Add cubed butter.
- Working quickly, use palms of hands to smear butter with flour until pea-sized bits of flour-coated butter form. It’s okay to have a few larger bits of butter.
- Add lemon juice to ice-cold water.
- Drizzle water, a bit at a time, and stir after each addition. Lightly start gathering dough that clumps together. Continue slowly drizzling water over surface, pushing clumps together.
- Dump dough on work surface and start pressing clumps together. Dough should feel moist enough that it barely sticks together.
- Drizzle a little more water on drier flour. Do not knead! Simply press dough together, gathering buttery flour. Do not add excessive water or crust will be tough.
- Shape dough into ball and wrap in plastic film. Refrigerate overnight or long enough to make filling.
Make Filling
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
- In bowl, toss fruit with sugar, flour, juice and cinnamon. Set aside.
Form Crust
- Place unwrapped dough on a lightly floured work surface.
- Use rolling pin (I used a drinking glass), flatten dough slightly. Then start from middle and with gentle force, roll out starting from centr. Lift flattened dough and turn, ensuring that it doesn’t stick. Add a little more flour if needed. If dough cracks, just moisten with ice water and glue it back together. Roll out to about ¼ “ or ⅛ “ thickness, about 16” diameter.
- Transfer dough to parchment-lined baking pan.
- Brush centre surface with jam, leaving outer 3” margin.
- Pour filling in centre.
- Use palms of hands to pleat outer 3” crust over filling. Press lightly to maintain pleats, using a little water as glue. Lightly press on filling to fill in gaps. Add bits of butter over surface of fruit.
- Ensure a few blueberries on top for appearance.
- Brush milk on top crust surface. Sprinkle with a little sugar. If crust does not feel cold, place in fridge for 20 minutes before baking.
- Bake for 15 minutes, then reduce oven to 350 degrees F and continue baking for about 30 minutes, or until crust is golden and fruit juices are bubbly.
- Remove from oven and place on rack to cool slightly.Sift with icing sugar. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream. (Optional)
Notes
These apples do not exude a lot of juice. If I had used a juicer apple, I would have doubled the amount of flour in the filling to thicken it more.