Fall or autumn – however you call it – it’s a wonderful season. I love it because it’s the season when it’s still warm outside but in the evening I have to wrap a blanket around my shoulders while sitting outside in the sunset. Leaves get this wonderful color of gold and red, a light that is so particular. I don’t think there are days more magic than in fall.
This is also time for chestnuts to collect and do some strange animals with them, to find the most beautiful colored leaf to put it in a book between the pages and to drink new wine. Last moments to get some vitamin D = sunshine.
I tried these days a new tart. Typical Italian style the crostata is a tart with jam and fruits on it an normally stripes of dough as decoration on the top. I tried out a new cookie cutter, some leaves I found time ago. With pears in this time it’s a perfect fruit tart. Later I do it with apples or only jam and no fruits like we use to do in Naples.
The tart is great almost for breakfast (if you like something sweet in the morning) or later with tea, coffee or a hot chocolate as well.
- In a bowl mix all the ingredients for the crust and knead the dough for a longer time. It should be a not sticky pie dough. Wrap it into a plastic foil and let it rest for an hour or more in the fridge or any other cool place.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C and grease a pie pan.
- Take the dough out of the fridge, unwrap it from the plastic foil and knead it again. Now roll it out to fit in the pie pan. Let a border half high the pie pan. Now perforate the dough with a fork a few times. Add the jam on the bottom of the pie just to cover it well. Put the sliced pears on the top. With the remaining dough form some long stripes to lay them in a grid pattern on the fruit pie.
- Now bake the pie for around 30 minutes or until golden.
- Take the fruit pie out of the oven and let it cool out well, before you serve.
Instead of the stripes put just some nice form done with cookie cutters like I did for fall time some foliage. Use flowers in summer, stars around X-mas or butterflies in spring for example. That gives a nice touch to your coffee or tea table.
Of course you can use any jam you have. Originally it is used apricot jam in Italy. I use jam that didn't come out perfectly and is a little bit too liquid.
Also the fruit is various and you can use any fruit you like.
Try sometimes with custard instead of jam. Then let it cool well in the fridge before serving.
You can decorate for example with some icing sugar (Sukrin
*All purpose flour I make this way (1 kg):
600 g almond flour
400 g starch
Any 100 g of this mix I add 3 g of arrowroot flour
