My daddy, whom I love and adore, left for a week plus long hunting trip today in Montana. This ordeal includes camping the entire time- not I-have-a-camper-with-a-bathroom camping, full on tent and toilet paper camping- and biking deep into the woods and then sitting quietly until elk are spotted. I love him dearly for this, because there is nothing I love cooking with more than elk. This is as organic as it gets and all of the meat is so, so lean. Not to mention elk are HUGE, so my entire family and many lucky friends can be fed for months.

ANYWAYS. My mother is kind enough to prepare my dad gross amounts of food for these trips, and lucky for me she had tons of left over apples. So, on my quick visit home for a doctor’s appointment, I whipped up this wonderful dessert inspired by Heather Bullard’s Rustic Apple Tart.

First, chop up some apples. You probably only need four, but I insisted on doing six… or seven. My mom has such a fancy little gadget for that, how could I resist?

Kim insisted on chopping and coring them by hand.

Next, combine the water, cinnamon, sugar, flour, nutmeg, vanilla, and butter in a sauce pan and bring to a simmer. If it remains runny, and a little more flour.

Turn the heat to low and throw in your chopped apples. Let them get a little soft.

Place pie crust on pie plate.

Pile the center with the gooey apple mixture.

Fold down the sides of the pie. Brush the edges of the pie with egg wash, and sprinkle (liberally) with the sugar in the raw so it’ll look bubbly and be nice and crunchy.

 

 

Mmmm. Bake in preheated oven for about 35 minutes.

To make the berry sauce (which it definitely doesn’t need if you don’t want it), I simply put about a cup of frozen mixed berries in a sauce pan with a half a cup of sugar, and added corn starch to thicken.

Throw some of your tart on a plate with a generous scoop of ice cream, drizzle with the berry sauce, and enjoy 🙂

Apple Tart
Modified from Heather Bullard

Ingredients
1 disc of store bought pie pastry dough
4 apples – peeled, cored and chopped
5 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp flour
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup of butter
1/4 cup of water
1 tsp vanilla

1 egg mixed with 2 tsp water or milk
3 TBS Sugar in the Raw (turbinado)

Berry Sauce:
1 cup mixed frozen berries (or fresh berries of choice)
1/2 cup of sugar
1 tbsp corn starch mixed with 1 tsp water

Directions:
In a large pot on medium-low heat, combine sugar, flour, butter, vanilla, water, and spices. Bring to a simmer. Turn heat to low and apples. Stir until apples have softened just a bit. Fill the center of the pie shell, pile it up high in the middle. Gently fold the outside of the shell into the center to hold the fruit inside. Brush the outside of the tart with your egg wash and sprinkle the crust with the turbinado sugar. Bake in a preheated 400 degree oven for 35-40 minutes.

To make the berry sauce, combine the frozen berries and sugar in a saucepan. Once the berries have broken down, add corn starch one tsp at a time followed by a few minutes of stirring until sauce has thickened.