Rustic Autumn Fruit Tart

Oh my goodness, what a yummy tart!  I pulled this from the internet to use at Thanksgiving but since we ended up having it at my sister's house, I put the recipe away.  I found it the other day and decided to make it for our Christmas Eve Eve dinner.  That was not a typo.  We had our Christmas Eve dinner early because we went home to eastern North Carolina the next day.  Anyway, this was our dessert and it was really good.  The crust--oh my--I may have to make my next pie with this.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter, chilled                                                     1/3 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup cream cheese                                                      1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour                                           1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg  

2 apples peeled, cored, sliced                                         1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom

1 pear peeled, cored, sliced                                            1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch

1/4 cup orange juice                                                      1/2 cup apricot jam, warmed

                                                                                     

1.  Cut the cold butter and cream cheese into the flour until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs. I usually use a pastry blender but this time I used my Ninja which was much quicker.  You just pulse the butter and flour until the mixture resembles cornmeal, then add the cream cheese and pulse until it looks like the size of small peas.  You should be able to squeeze a handful of the dough and make a ball.  Shape the dough into a small disk, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for at least an hour.

2.  Toss the apples and pear with the orange juice.  Whisk together the brown sugar,spices and cornstarch.  Toss the fruit with the sugar-spice mixture and set aside.

3.  Preheat an oven to 375 degrees F.  Set out an 8-inch tart pan or do like me and make a free-form tart, lightly greasing a baking sheet.

4.  Roll the pastry out on a lightly floured work surface to form a 10-inch circle.  Transfer the dough to the tart pan or baking sheet.  Arrange the fruit decoratively Plop the fruit in the middle of the pastry (really, I just had no time to be fancy).  If you are using a baking sheet, leave a 2-inch rim of dough and fold it up over the edge of the fruit (the folds will overlap).

5.  Bake the tart in the oven until the crust is browned and the filling is bubbly, about 30 minutes.  Remove the tart from the oven and brush it with the apricot jam.

I served this with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream.  You could use whipped cream.

Source:  CULINARY JEN, allrecipes.com