Restaurants, Food and Drink |

Davis Farmers Market recipe: A Rustic Sweet Tart for every season

You’ve just gone crazy at the farmers market, snapping up the snap peas, perhaps, or scooping up bushels of stone fruit. What now?

If you’re Ann M. Evans, co-founder of the Davis Farmers Market, you turn to your handy stash of eight go-to, customizable recipes for savory tarts and rustic galettes, gratins, fricassees, pastas and risotto, all designed to showcase whatever’s in season. These are recipes, Evans says, “I use day in and day out throughout the year when I cook from the market.”

Whether you’ve got cherries, apples, kiwi or quince, this rustic tart or galette recipe is the ticket to sweet success. The flaky, free-form pastry holds peak-of-season fruit, no tart pan necessary.

Basic Rustic Sweet Tart Recipes with Apples

Serves 8

Crust:

1½ cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon sugar

¼ teaspoon sea or kosher salt

½ cup (1 stick) plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into walnut-size pieces and frozen

4 tablespoons ice water

¼ teaspoon vanilla or almond extract, optional

Filling:

3 cups thinly sliced apples

3 to 4 tablespoons honey, warmed until fluid, if necessary

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

1 egg, lightly beaten, for egg wash

Directions

1. In a food processor, combine the flour, sugar and salt and pulse several times to mix. Scatter the frozen butter over the flour mixture and pulse 5 to 7 times, until the butter is in pea-size balls and covered with flour. Add the ice water and vanilla and, using ½-second pulses, pulse just until the water is incorporated and the dough comes together in a rough mass. Do not overwork the dough or the crust will be tough.
2. Gently shape the dough into a firm ball, lightly dust with flour, then flatten into a thick disk. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes in the refrigerator or 10 minutes in the freezer.
3. Meanwhile, heat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
4. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the dough into a 12-inch round, moving and flouring the dough two to three time to avoid sticking. Transfer the pastry to the prepared baking sheet.
5. Arrange the apple slices in concentric circles on the pastry dough, leaving a 2-inch border uncovered. Drizzle the apples with honey. Dot the apples with butter.
6. Fold the 2-inch border up over the apples, making loose pleats as you work your way around the edge and leaving the center open. Using a pastry brush, lightly coat the pleated edge with the beaten egg.
7. Bake until the crust is golden brown, about 40 minutes. Let cool for at least 15 minutes on the pan on a wire rack. Using a wide spatula, slide the tart onto a serving plate. Serve warm or at room temperature, cut into wedges.

Seasonal variations

Spring: Pitted cherries, halved apricots or berries of all kinds

Summer: Sliced stone fruits such as peaches, nectarines or plums, alone or in combination with berries

Fall: Sliced quinces or apples or halved figs

Winter: Sliced apples or kiwifruits

— “The Davis Farmers Market Cookbook” (Elderflower Press, $27), available at the Davis Farmers Market and Davis’ Avid Reader Books, AvidReaderBooks.com