Apple Crostatas and Cranberry Tart
Long ago, my friend Sasha introduced me to the concept of “surprise vegan”.
It’s when you don’t intentionally set out to make a vegan dish, but it turns out to be one. Knowing Sasha, I believe the original “surprise vegan” dish was a soup. (In a twist on the genre, Sasha once made a cauliflower soup that would’ve been “surprise vegan” if she had not accidentally made it so spicy that it required a small tub of sour cream to consume).
A close cousin of “surprise vegan” is “surprise gluten-free”. I <3 gluten so I never intentionally leave it out, especially when baking. But every once in a while, you’re making something and midway through realize - “This...has no gluten!” This often happens with granola (OK, I don’t actually make granola that often because I have trapped my friend Alicia into making me the most perfect granola in perpetuity. Granola is my white whale, but that’s probably a separate post). Granola seems like it’s chock-a-block full of gluten and then turns out to be devoid of it altogether.
That is also true of this cranberry tart. The crust consists of almond flour, cornstarch, sugar, salt, butter, and your choice of almond or vanilla extract. I think the common denominator here between granola and this crust is nuts. Nuts add a hearty, toasty, complex element that can stand up to, yet play nice with, a lot of different ingredients.
This recipe also aligns with my philosophy that there is so much great food to meet so many dietary restrictions that inevitably a delicious recipe exists in which no substitutes are required to satisfy said restrictions. You don’t have to convert another tart recipe to be gluten-free, you can just...make this one. If you want to substitute ingredients, etc., be my guest! Experimentation in the kitchen is half the fun. It’s just the difference between buying pants that are already the right length instead of ones that need to be hemmed. Both approaches get you dressed, one just doesn’t require a sewing machine.
If you’ve read this far expecting a word or two on the apple crostatas, I’ll give them to you - game changer. I realize this is blasphemous to apple pie devotees like myself, but in my heart of hearts I think I prefer the ratio of crust to filling offered by the crostatas. That being said, I will one day write my manifesto on why apple desserts are the best desserts and there’s gonna be a large section exulting apple pie.
Until then, make the tart or make the crostatas (or make both). You just may surprise yourself along the way.
Cranberry tart recipe from Cook’s Illustrated; apple crostata recipe adapted from Joanne Chang’s cookbook Patry Love.