Rose Apple Cheesecake Tarts

ORIGINAL

Recipe Source: Cap CXVI, Libro quinto, Scappi

Per fare torta di mel'appie

Piglisi la mela appia & faccili brustolire nelle bracie, & poi levisi la scorza che fara arfa, con vino, o con l'acqua, & si tagli la parte migliore in fettoline, pestandole nel mortaro, con oncie due di mostaccioli per ogni due libre di felloline, & oncie quattro di cascio grattato, & sei di provatura fresca, & pistache fara ogni cosa, giungaseli seirossi d'oue crude, & due col chiaro, mezz' oncia di cannela pista, et mezza tra pepe, garfali, & noci moscate, & otto oncie di zuccaro, & d'essa compositione se ne fara torta nella tortiera, doue sia un sfoglio di pasta alquanto grossetto, & il tortiglione a torno. Et no volendole brustolire, si taglino in sette, e si faccino sof friggere nel butiro, overo stufar le con zuccaro, & vino, & acquarola. Tenendo l'ordine di farla cuocere al forno, al sotto il testo, & come le so proaferitte, et tal torta d'ogni tempo si puo servire fredda, & caldo beneplacito.

TRANSLATION

Translation Source: "The Opera of Bartolomeo Scappi", page 486 (Chapter 5, recipe 116)

Translator: Terrence Scully

To Prepare an Apple Tourte

Get red apples and roast them in the coals, then remove the burnt skin with wine and water. Cut the best part into thin slices, grinding them in a mortar with two ounces of mostaccioli for every two pounds of apple slices, along with four ounces of grated cheese and six ounces of fresh provatura. When everything is ground up, add in six raw egg yolks and two eggs with their whites, half an ounce of ground cinnamon, half an ounce of pepper, cloves and nutmeg together, and eight ounces of sugar. With that mixture make a tourte in a tourte pan with a rather thick pastry shell and a twist around it. If you do not want to roast them, slice them and saute them in butter or else stew them in sugar, wine, and rosewater, following the procedure for baking the tourte in the oven or braising it, like the previous ones. A tourte like that can always be served cold or hot, as you like.

REDACTION (8 servings)

Redaction Source: Maestra Suzanne de la Ferté (Suzanne Booth)

For the filling:

4 ea apples

2 c sugar

1 c wine

1 dash rose water

8 oz new cheese (use cream cheese in a pinch)

2 ea. eggs, beaten

1/4 c. sugar

1/4 t. cinnamon

1/4 t. ginger

For the pastry:

3 ½ c. flour

18 T butter

2 t. salt

-- sub 1 box refrigerated pastry dough

Method

MAKE THE APPLE FILLING:

a. Stir the sugar, wine, and rose water together in a large pan until the sugar is fully dissolved.

b. Cut apples in half vertically.

c. Remove core and cut into thin (semi-circle) slices.

d. Put the slices into the apple syrup and simmer gently for 10 minutes or until tender - You need the apples to be soft enough so that you can roll them, but not so soft as to fall apart. Depending on how thickly you sliced the apples, probably no more than 15 minutes. You’ll find that the color from the skins leeches into the syrup, and turns the flesh of the apples a wonderful dusky pink. Lift the apple slices from the syrup with a slotted spoon and allow to drain /cool in a sieve.

MAKE THE CHEESE FILLING:

a. With a rubber spatula or wooden spoon (or in a food processor or electric mixer) cream the butter and cream cheese.

b. When the mixture is well blended, cream in the sugar, the ginger, and a pinch of salt.

c. Whip the eggs briefly to break them up, and then add to the cream cheese mixture in a thin stream beating briskly all the while.

PREHEAT OVEN TO 375°F.

TART SHELLS:

a. Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface. Using a cookie cutter, cut the dough into 24 circles.

b. Transfer the rounds to 24 greased and floured mini muffin tins.

c. Press the dough into the molds and up the sides (there should be some extra dough at the top).

d. Prick their bottom with a fork, and then put them in the freezer.

e. Let mini tart tins rest there for at least 15 minutes.

CHEESE FILLING:

a. Pour about a tbsp of the cheese filling into each tart shell.

APPLES:

a. Roll a slice of apple into a tight spiral and stand it up vertically in the custard.

b. Continue to arrange apple slices in a concentric pattern, around the first one, building a rose pattern.

BAKE:

a. Cook mini tarts for about 10-15 minutes - they have to be slightly colored golden, but not brown.

b. Remove from oven and let them cool before serving