Apples and pears go together delightfully and fall is the perfect time to indulge in baking them into tartlets for company. I love to make individual tarts because they make people feel so special when you each get your own tartlet. Use what ever kind of baking apples you have. Good choices are red Rome, Empire, Golden Delicious, but no to Fuji, Red Delicious or Gala apples. I got mine from an actual apple orchard (Bechdolts which is south of Hellertown, PA.) I like to buy their small basket of seconds which are cheaper and just as fresh as can be especially compared to grocery store apples. Plus the taste is the same as the fancy unblemished ones in the display baskets. Bosc pears are perfect for baking; great flavor and texture.

I used Annalise Robert’s crust recipe and flour mixture. I think this crust tastes terrific and has a wonderful texture.

These are simple tarts: no need to make them perfect looking. I used a fork to press around the crust before I lay the fruit in it. I cut out leaves from the leftover crust to make a sort of a top crust. The coarse sugar adds a certain eye apple and crunch. Enjoy!

Rustic Pear Apple Tartlets

Crust:
1 c plus 2 tbsp brown rice flour mix (at bottom of recipe)
2 tbsp sweet rice flour
1 Tbps. granulated sugar
½ tsp xanthan gum
¼ tsp salt
6 Tbps. cold butter cut into 6 chunks
1 lg egg
2 tsp fresh orange or lemon juice

Spray 4 inch metal tart pans or 4 inch mini deep dish pie pans with cooking spray, dust with white rice flour. Set aside.

Mix dry ingredients in bowl of stand electric mixer. Add butter and mix until crumbly and resembling coarse meal. Add egg and juice. Mix until it comes together into big chunks. Shape into a ball with your hands. Put it on a crust sized piece of wax paper (14 x 14 inches more or less), flatten the crust ball some; put on top of it another piece of wax paper and chill it all in your fridge 15-20 minutes.

Cut it into 4 balls and roll out each ball into a small pie crust in a pie bag or between the two sheets of wax paper, try to get the thickness even, no thick middle! Peel off one side of paper and place in mini
pie pan, centered. Remove other slice of wax paper. Crimp edges all around. Do again until you have 4 shells and use all the crumb leftovers to make a fifth tartlet crust. I actually do two of them side by side and turn them out onto the tartlet pans together. Repeat for other four shells.

Filling:

2 medium sized yellow delicious or other baking apples
1 large bosc pear

Peel apples, quarter, cut out core, slice into 1/3 inch thick slices. Same for pear except you can leave the peel on if you like. Or peel! Mix in a large bowl with:

3 tbsp. granulated sugar (4 if you like it sweet)
1 tbsp. minute tapioca
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
A sprinkle of ground nutmeg.

Heap into tartlet shells. Top with a leaf cut out of the spare crust. Sprinkle with coarse sugar.

Bake 375 for 40-45 minutes until lightly browned. Cool before serving with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
Brown Rice Flour Mix- (same as King Arthur gf flour blend)
2 c brown rice flour
2/3 c potato starch
1/3 c tapioca flour

Originally published October 2014.