This week’s recipe for Cook the Book Fridays comes from Dorie Greenspan’s cookbook, Everyday Dorie (Boozy Jumbled-Fruit Croustade) and was one I was a bit hesitant to make mostly because working with phyllo is always a bit of a faff.
In Southwest France, a croustade is a dessert made from hand-pulled phyllo and filled with apples and Armagnac and it’s pretty impressive – I’ve seen it made from scratch (including the phyllo!) and it’s absolutely gorgeous!
(all of that what looks like fabric in the background is actually hand-pulled phyllo!)
(this was taken at the Musée du Foie Gras – Souleilles in Frespech in Southwest France)
We’ve made small croustades before for Tuesdays with Dorie – Petite Apple Croustades from Baking Chez Moi – and they were super fiddly – made in muffin tins so lots of faffing around with fiddly bits of phyllo (try saying that fast five times!).
For this recipe, I had the idea to minify it (because honestly, who needs an entire croustade when there are just 2 of you?) but not in muffin tins. I used two 12cm tart pans (<<< affiliate link but it’s actually a really useful mini tart pan size!) to make two smaller croustades that were MUCH less fiddly than the muffin tins. So yeah sometimes you don’t need to minify that much!
I filled mine with cranberries, figs, prunes, crystallized ginger and a little bit of rum and sugar. Dorie’s recipe calls for the addition of fresh fruit (orange and apple) but I just used what I had on hand and it was like a fancy mince pie!
Working with squares of phyllo just slightly bigger than the tart pan, I layered buttered, sugared the pastry with very little faff actually. For this recipe it doesn’t matter if it breaks a little bit because the butter kind of sticks it together. To my surprise, they actually held together in the baking process and came out of the (lightly buttered) tart pans easily. And they cut easily too!
Served warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, this was perfect (the two small croustades were about 4 servings actually!). I will remember these tart pans and technique because I loved this iteration (and yeah, one day I’ll get to a full-sized one!)
(click on the picture – affiliate link)
Get the recipe for Dorie Greenspan’s Boozy Jumbled-Fruit Croustade on page 283 of Everyday Dorie.
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Disclosure: I was provided with a copy of “Everyday Dorie” for review purposes. I was not asked to write about the book, nor am I being compensated for doing so. All opinions 100% my own.
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Exactly as Mardi summarised: sort of like a “light” version of a mince pie, with the similar flavour profile.
I had forgotten about those mini apple croustades! How could I with how fussy those were!! I liked this one much better without using the muffin pan…it was way easier free form! Glad yours were easier too!!
Looking at your croustade picture convinces me that I’d love the croustade more if someone else is making it for me. It’s mouthwateringly goood!
flaky, not faffy! looks delish!
This was a great dessert and I agree a fancy mince pie. I enjoyed all your faffying stories. I was happy I was able to share mine with a crowd.