yom kippur & apple crostatas

It was Yom Kippur this past weekend (fri night-sat night) and as part of the holiday, we fast for that 24 hour period and no work is meant to be done. Once the sun has set on the second night, it is customary to have a big dinner to break the fast, which my family did. It is hard to have a dinner prepared when you are not supposed to be cooking during the day, so my go-to recipes are easy and mainly make-ahead dishes.

I'm only going to be posting about the dessert I made, but if anyone is interested about the main courses I made a variety of salads: spinach salad, curried chicken salad, egg salad, and potato salad. The chicken, potatoes, and eggs can be cooked the night before and the rest of the ingredients can be mixed in minutes before guests arrive.

The dessert I made, an apple crostata is basically a free-form tart. This recipe comes from my favorite chef, Giada De Laurentiis, with a few additions of my own. I love this dessert because it is rustic and virtually impossible to mess up. It is free-form, meaning you can shape it however you want, and it will always look yummy.  I also made a quick caramel sauce to drizzle on top.

Recipes and how-to pictures below!

Apple Crostata
(adapted from Giada De Laurentiis)

Crust:
-1 1/2 cups AP flour
-2 tbsp sugar
-1/2 tsp salt
-10 tbsp unsalted butter, chilled and cut into cubes
-3 tbsp ice water

Filling
-3 apples (I used Gala, her recipe calls for Golden Delicious and Pippin)
-1/4 cup sugar
-1 tsp ground cinnamon
-1 tsp vanilla extract
-1 tsp fresh lemon juice
-1 large egg, beaten with 1 tbsp milk/water, whatever you have
-1 tbsp vanilla sugar, for sprinkling on the crust 

Oven Preheat: 400, do this while you are making apple filling 

I like to get all my ingredients and utensils out before I start baking so I'm not running back and forth

For the crust: Cube the butter, and put in the freezer for 10 minutes, just to make sure its extra cold. Meanwhile measure out the flour ,sugar, and salt and mix until combined.  In a food processor, pulse the flour mixture and the cubed butter until the consistency resembles sand

you know its pulsed enough when it looks like sand and clumps together

After, the butter and flour is combined, slowly add the ice water one tablespoon at a time, while pulsing, until the mixture comes together like a dough. Stop pulsing once it comes together and do not over mix. (it will make your dough tough)

Turn the mixture out onto a floured board and roll it into a ball, wrap in plastic and refrigerate at least one hour. Since I couldn't bake on Saturday, I let mine sit in the fridge overnight, which is perfectly fine.

To make the filling:
wash and peel 3 apples of your choice.

Tip: Anytime I have to peel anything (apples, potatoes, butternut squash) I always rip open a paper grocery bag until its flat and peel over it. Peels can go flying all over the place, and with this, they get caught in the paper bag and you just roll it up and throw it out after. Very easy clean up!

After the apples are peeled, you will need to core them and slice them. Work quickly because they turn brown very fast. I use a melon baller to core my apples. I also quarter them, then slice and get about 4 slices from very quarter of an apple.

Add the apple slices to a bowl, and squeeze the lemon juice over them to help stop the oxidation. Add the sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla and mix well. Let it sit for 10 minutes. 

Meanwhile, put a piece of parchment paper on a board you will use to roll out the dough. Flour that parchment paper very well and roll the dough out into an 11 inch circle (dont worry, it does not have to be perfect).

Then, as shown above, transfer it to a baking sheet.

Spread the apple mixture onto the dough, leaving about a 2 inch border on all sides. Fold the border over the filling to form an 8-inch round, leaving the apples exposed in the center. Pleat the pinch the dough to seal any cracks.  Brush the crust with the egg wash and sprinkle with the vanilla sugar.

Bake until the crust is golden brown, about 40 minutes. Transfer it to a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes.

While it was cooling, I made the caramel sauce. (sorry, I do not have pictures of this process)

Caramel Sauce
(adapted from Ina Garten)

-1 1/2 cups sugar
-1/3 cup water
-1 1/4 cup heavy cream
-1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Dissolve the sugar and the water in a medium size saucepan on a low heat (5-10 minutes).
Turn up the heat to medium and boil the sugar until it turns a medium brown, 350 degrees on a candy thermometer. Ina says it will take 5-7 minutes, but mine actually took 9 minutes to turn that brown.
Do not walk away at any point, this sauce can burn in an instant.
Once the brown color in the sugar is achieved, turn OFF the heat and slowly add the heavy cream and the vanilla. Be careful because this mixture will splatter, do not stand too close.
Turn the heat back on over low, and simmer the mixture until the cream completely dissolves and it looks like caramel, 2-3 minutes.
Pour into a heat-proof dish, and let it cool to room temperature. It will thicken as it cools.
Store it in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week.

After my crostata had cooled, you slice it in to wedges, pour a little caramel over and enjoy!

Now, I have all this leftover caramel..hmm what to do?