Meal Five

Saturday, after church, we had a covered dish meal and one of my contributions was a Spiced Fruit Tart.  I used a recipe from the December 2010 Southern Living, subbing in a homemade pie crust for the called for packaged refrigerated piecrust.

For some reason, piecrust has earned the reputation of being very difficult to make.  I haven't found this so, and I even forego the called-for shortening for butter (shortening creeps me out).  Furthermore, piecrust takes practically no time at all to make.  I highly suggest you try my recipe and find out just how easy pie is.

Tipsy Spiced Fruit Tart with Buttermilk Whipped Cream
2/3 cup bourbon
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon allspice
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup dried Mission figs, halved
1 7oz package dried apricots, chopped
1 cup raisins
3 pears, peeled and chopped
2 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons freshly grated ginger
2 piecrusts (recipe below)
1 large egg, beaten
2 teaspoons turbinado sugar
Buttermilk Whipped Cream (recipe below)

1. Cook bourbon, cinnamon, allspice and 1/2 cup sugar over medium heat, stirring frequently, for 3 minutes or until sugar is dissolved.  Try not to dive your face into the fragrant syrup.

2. Remove from heat and stir in dried fruit.  Pour mixture in a gallon-size zip-top freezer bag and seal, removing as much air as possible.  You may sample one piece of fruit, but limit yourself to one.  Otherwise, you will risk having no fruit for the tart.  It's that good.  Chill for 24 hours.

3. Preheat oven to 350°.  Dump fruit into a large bowl and stir in the pears, flour, ginger, and 1/4 cup sugar.

4. Stack piecrusts on parchment paper.  Mound fruit in the center of the piecrust, leaving a 2-1/2 inch border.  Fold in the piecrust, leaving an opening about 5 inches in diameter.

5. Brush crust with egg, then sprinkle with turbinado sugar.  Slide parchment paper (and tart) onto a baking sheet.

6. Bake for 50 minutes or until filling is all bubbly and yummy.  Cool on baking sheet for at least half an hour.

Piecrust
1-1/4 cups white whole wheat flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup butter
4-5 tablespoons cold water 

1. In a medium sized bowl, stir together the flour and salt.  Using a pastry blender, cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal.

2. Sprinkle mixture with the water.  You may stir together with a fork, delicately moistening (that's right, family, I said "moist") the dough, but I prefer to just stick my hands right in there and mash it all together.

3. Form dough into a ball and place on a lightly floured surface, then flatten slightly.  Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough, working from the center out, until the circle is 12 inches in diameter.

4. To transfer the pastry, wrap it around the rolling pin.

Buttermilk Whipped Cream
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 tablespoons sugar

Beat together ingredients until soft peaks form.