Today is Pie Day. Or rather, Pi Day (3.14.15), at least in the US date format. Some years, I have made a whole slew of pies, but this year, this is my solo one. It’s lovely. It’s harder to put together than one would think, as a lot of the “flowers” want to unroll again. But it’s well worth it.
Ingredients
For the Pastry
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup almond meal/flour
1 tablespoon sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1/3 cup chilled solid vegetable shortening, diced
6 tablespoons (or more) ice water
For the Custard
1 1/2 cups whole milk
6 egg yolks
1/4 cup honey
1 tablespoon
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons almond extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the Apple Blossoms
3-4 apples (I used Pink Lady), cored, and thinly sliced
(do not peel; keep in lemon juice thinned with a bit of cold water until ready to use)
juice of a lemon
1/4 cup apricot jam, warmed
Directions
First make your crust. Blend flour, sugar and salt in a food processor. Add butter and shortening and pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add 6 tablespoons ice water and process until moist clumps form, adding more water by teaspoonfuls if dough is dry. Gather into ball and flatten into a disk. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 2 hours. Roll out chilled dough disk between two sheets of plastic wrap, until 1/8-inch thick and 2-inch wider than tart pan.
Invert dough into tart pan; press onto bottom and up sides. If dough is soft, chill until firm enough for remaining sheet of plastic to be removed. Trim edges of dough (patch up any holes or tears with extra dough). Chill until firm, about another hour.
Preheat oven to 350F. Line dough with parchment paper or heavy-duty foil, leaving a 1-inch-2-inch overhang. Fill paper with dried beans or pie weights. Bake tart shell just until dough has dried and does not look wet in any spots, about 20 minutes. (If center still looks wet, bake crust without weights until dried and opaque, a few minutes longer.) Let cool completely.
To make the custard: Pour the milk into a small pot and place over medium heat until small bubbles form around the edges. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the honey, cornstarch, and salt. Slowly pour the warmed milk over the egg mixture, while whisking, to warm the eggs. Place the mixture back into the pot and place over low heat. Cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture comes to a bubble and becomes very thick. Remove from the heat and stir in the almond and vanilla extracts. Put custard through a fine mesh strainer (in case you had any egg bits scramble on you) and transfer to a heat safe container. Lay plastic wrap over the surface. Chill for a minimum of two hours, but can be made the day before.
To assemble, spread the custard in the walnut tart shell. Place apple slices on a plate lined with paper towels and warm the apple slices in the microwave until pliable. Roll a slice of apple into a tight spiral and stand it up vertically in the custard. Continue to arrange apple slices in a concentric pattern, around the first one, some larger, some smaller, building a rose pattern. This is not very easy as the blossoms would like the unravel, but once you tuck as many as you can in there, they should all stay in place. Warm the apricot jam, and thin it with lemon juice. Brush this glaze over the apples, for shine and to prevent browning.
