Wednesday, October 28th, 2009
Halloween is tomorrow and these adorable jack-o-lantern mini apple tartlets are the perfect dessert for your Halloween party! Not only are they incredibly spooky and cute, but if you pre-make the crust (or cheat and buy pre-made crust) they can be whipped up scarily fast!

For the crust:
Gather all of the ingredients.

In a food processor, fitted with metal blade, blend together 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1 teaspoon sugar. Pulse a few times to blend together all of the dry ingredients.

Add 1 cup * 2 sticks * chilled unsalted butter cut into small pieces.

Pulse food processor for 8-10 seconds until mixture looks like coarse meal.

With the machine running drizzle 1/4 to 1/2 cup ice water through the feed tube on the top. You want the dough to hold together but not be too sticky or wet. If its too wet, add a little more flour. The machine should not run for more than 30 seconds or the dough will become too tough. Wrap dough with plastic wrap and place in refrigerator for at least 1 hour.

For the apple filling:
Gather all of the ingredients:

Peel and dice three apples * granny smith or cortland apples work best * I used the apples I picked last weekend!

In a bowl mix together diced apples, 1/3 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon flour, 1 teaspoon cinnamon and 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg.

To assemble the tarts:
Remove the pie dough from the refrigerator and roll out to 1/8 inch thickness. Using a round cutter that is slightly larger than your mini tartlet pan cut out enough disks to fill all of your tartlet pans. Place the extra dough back into the refrigerator.

Press each disk into the tartlet pan and remove excess dough around top edge.

Fill the tartlet pans to the top with the apple mixture. Mix one egg with a few droplets of water and brush around the edge of your tartlet pans. Place the tartlets in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes.

Remove the remaining pie dough from the refrigerator and roll out once again to 1/8 inch thickness. Using a round cutter approximately 1/4 smaller than the tartlet pan cut out enough rounds to cover all of your tartlets. * I have a set of cutters that come in tons of shapes and sizes from Williams Sonoma * Place the rounds back in refrigerator for 10 minutes.

Remove the chilled rounds from the refrigerator and use a sharp knife to cut out different “jack-o-lantern” patterns in the dough. Brush them with the egg mixture and bake
on a silpat in 350 degree oven for 15-18 minutes until golden brown.

When both the tarts and disks are removed from the oven and cooled slightly, place one disk on top of the apple tart for a trick or treating surprise!


For a printer-friendly version of this recipe click here:

HalloweenAppleTartlets.htm

Happy Baking and a very Happy Halloween!

xoxo,

Ali

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