Apple Tart (in 5 ingredients)

Do you have a knife and an oven? Yes? Well then you can make this. In fact, if it weren't for all of the chopping with sharp objects and potential dismemberment issues, I would say you could make it blindfolded.

I adore fall, everything about it really. I love the way the air smells and how great that first breath in the chill feels. The trees are vibrant and beautiful, and even their fallen leaves (pain though they may be to rake) make a lovely sound scattering across the pavement. And while fall does not always go *well* in my life, I still find it comforting and peaceful.

Oh, and I look great in fall colors... but that's neither here nor there.

All of this is a roundabout way of saying that fall food is fantastic. I can go a little overboard with the butternut squash, apples, and pumpkin. The pumpkin shortage last year devastated me; I was that weird girl in the Trader Joe's asking every three days if they had any pumpkin yet and then buying a bomb-shelter-sized stash when they finally did. I could write an ode to Thanksgiving food (especially stuffing) and who doesn't love mulled wine or a tangy cider?

Let us begin our journey into my fall repertoire with a simple dessert: an apple tart that requires no thought and, if you're brave, no measuring.



Lazy Man's Apple Tart
serves 4-6

1 sheet of frozen pastry dough
2-3 Granny Smith apples (I like it tart, but you may substitute a slightly more mellow apple if you so choose)
1/4-1/3 cup Sugar
1 tsp? Cinnamon
2-3 tbsp Butter

1) Preheat the oven to 475.

2) Thaw the pastry dough in the refrigerator over night or leave it on the counter for about 30 min before you need it to soften it up. Then roll it out on a lightly floured surface and cut a 12" circle (You may wish to use a plate as a guide). Place the dough on a greased cookie sheet and put back in the refrigerator while you work on the apples.

3) There are two ways to chop an apple, but both of them require that you peel it first. You can just hack off 4 sides and slice them thinly -or- you can split the apple through the core and scoop out the core with a mellonballer and slice pretty half circles. Entirely up to you, though I followed the latter path this particular time. After the apple is in pretty slices, arrange them on the pastry dough, overlapping by at least 1/4".

4) Again you have a choice: you may either sprinkle the sugar and then dust the top with cinnamon (which is what I did) -or- for the sake of even distribution, blend the cinnamon and sugar first. Either way, you need to pour all of the sugar over the apples, carefully avoiding the apple-free outer edges of the crust, as sugar without apples will burn. And yes, I know it feels like a lot of sugar, but just go with it.

5) Slice the butter into thin squares and arrange on top of the entire mixture.

6) If you want to get fancy, brush the exposed crust with egg white to make it brown nicely, but I did not.

7) Pop the tart into the oven for 10-15 minutes, or until it looks delicious.

I didn't even wait for it to cool, I just plopped some vanilla ice cream on top and went nuts.