Fortunately for this week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe (compote de pommes, two ways, p 392) Neil came home last week with 100 apples from a colleague’s tree. Perfect timing. Compote de pommes is basically apple purée or apple sauce and Dorie’s recipe offers two ways to prepare it – first, prepared the traditional way where you cook peeled, cored and cut up apples with a little water and a tiny amount of sugar until they are soft enough to mash up with a fork.
Dorie’s method calls for running the compote through a food mill or a mesh strainer but I prefer my applesauce a little on the chunky side so I used a potato masher…
Sprinkled with a little cinnamon? Perfect any time of the day. I’ve had a bad migraine this week and the apple sauce has kept me going through hours of Parent-Teacher interviews. It’s comforting like that.
Dorie also offers a further preparation for the the apples to reduce them to a thicker, jammier consistency by returning the strained compote back to the pan and cooking it over a very very low heat, stirring often. She also suggests you can place the pan in the oven at 250˚F and bake it until it’s thick. I actually used my Bellini Kitchen Master – a home thermal blender – can read my first and second impressions to see what it’s like to work with.
I cooked the apples down in the Bellini though they didn’t darken and caramelize as I imagine they might have on the stovetop or in the oven. But the jammy consistency was there for sure.
And because I am not a huge fan of apple sauce with that consistency (as a snack), I used it in a tart. You know, as you do.
This is adapted from a recipe over on Crème de Citron – Yolène calls for peanut butter on the bottom of the tart shell – I used a salted caramel spread, then topped it with the apple compote and then sliced apples. This was nice enough but I felt it needed the salt of the peanut butter – the spread I used was definitely not quite salty enough. But definitely a repeat recipe, for sure.
The apple spread was perfect in this recipe – the jammier consistency is great for baking but for snacking I prefer the chunkier version.
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Mmmmmm….your tart looks magnificent, Mardi!!
I love making tarts and this looks absolutely wonderful, I am going to have to try it. The applesauce recipe was really very easy and we enjoyed it very much. I love the
photo of the apple, beautiful shot.
Thanks!
Sounds like you made an adventure out of your apples! They all look delicious. I just mash mine up too. I make this fairly often at this time of year, and it is, indeed, delightful comfort food. Glad it helped you get through all of those meetings!!
Apple compote was a real regular in our house, esp when Daisy was a baby.
She still loves it!
The tart looks delicious:) I love the salted caramel spread. What a great flavor to use with apples.
Looks delicious! And I’m in love with your first apple photo!
Oh that tart looks lovely! I really enjoyed the applesauce…loved the hint of vanilla! I will have to give your tart a try! Very pretty! Have a great weekend!
Another three-fer! Your tart looks delicious. I cooked mine on the stove and it’s didn’t darken up as I had expected either. I was a little sad about that at first, but the taste was too good for me to worry about it for long.
Glad the applesauce was a comfort to you this week. I was a teacher and parent teacher conferences can be draining. The tart is beautiful too.
My compote got thicker when I kept on cooking, but it didn’t really darken the way I expected either. I used the compote for a tart too, but without the caramel sauce. I love caramel apples (with chopped peanuts), so I’ll give yours a try. Maybe if you sprinkled with salted peanuts to make up for subbing caramel for the peanut butter?
A sprinkle of chopped peanuts would be awesome in this tart, yes!
Now let’s see……..you had a week-long migraine mixed with parent-teacher conferences and you managed to put up a Post showing how the FFWD recipe-of-the-week can be made three different ways!!! Hmmmm. I prefer chunky. Also like the idea of the tart. Apples and peanut butter or apples and caramel – great combos. Makes me hungry right now.
Oh Mary, I NEVER make the FFWD recipes in the week of the actual recipe 😉
What a great use for the apple sauce. Tarts are always a good alternative.
Oh, and that apple pic. Stunning!!
100 apples… yikes! Any home brewed cider projects in the works for Mr. Neil?
Your tart looks so crisp and pretty!
Neil does brew cider but not at home. These were all used for baking and to give away to others 🙂
Love what you did with the apples ! So fun that you had a huge delivery at the same time we had this recipe come up- serendipity indeed. Though I am not sure it truly offsets migraines coming during parent teacher time :(. Gorgeous applesauce and jam but that tart was genius. Had not considered that since I love caramel apples this would be a great tart combo. Thanks for the inspiration !
I love the look and sound of your tart – yum!
Your tart is lovely and I’m envious of 100 apples from a co-workers tree!
Your chunky applesauce looks beautiful and delicious! I did not make the jammier version for the same reasons you preferred the basic applesauce: I did not think I would want to eat it as a snack and making it into something else was not on the cards last week.
A tart – of course…as one does 🙂
This tart looks delicious it’s a refreshing finish to any meal! Great recipe! 😉
I love the photo of the apple and would love a slice of that tart, too. Applesauce is a useful thing to have around at this time of year.