Homemade Apple Crostata Recipe | Simple Rustic Apple Tart for Fall

I’m baking one of my favorite cozy desserts — a Rustic Apple Crostata. It’s simple, beautiful, and filled with warm cinnamon apples wrapped in a flaky, homemade crust.

This recipe was featured in my newest Homeworthy episode, “Fall Decorating Ideas & Baking on a Pennsylvania Farm | At Home with Ruth McKeaney.” What I love most about a crostata is how forgiving it is — no perfect pie pan needed, just fold over the edges for a rustic, homemade look that feels special every time.

GET THE RECIPE:
https://www.hungry4home.com/blog/applecrostata

📺 Watch the full Homeworthy episode here:

Follow Homeworthy:
https://www.youtube.com/@Homeworthy
https://www.instagram.com/homeworthy/?hl=en

Follow Anne Neilson:
https://www.instagram.com/anneneilsonhome/?hl=en
https://www.instagram.com/anneneilsonfineart/?hl=en
https://anneneilsonhome.com/?srsltid=AfmBOoq_I1mNZsTx6EQKnfJ61CeLlPSHgysDX1g8ofBedi6sUF9nTnIT

Stay Connected With Ruth McKeaney:
Follow Hungry for Home on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hungryforhome/
Follow Hungry for Home on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@hungryforhome?lang=en
Visit Hungry for Home’s website: https://www.hungry4home.com/
Shop the book: https://www.hungry4home.com/shop/p/hungry-for-home-a-year-together-at-hillside-farm

#Homeworthy #AtHomeWithRuthMcKeaney #applerecipes #apple #fallrecipes

Okay, we are back from being outside and watching a magical world begin. And uh we’re going to do our own magic. And that is with an apple cada. You know, it’s funny. I was sitting there last night going, is it an apple galot gallette galot or an apple cada? And what’s the difference? It’s the same thing. I had no idea. Anyway, did my own little research. So, an apple cada basically, all right, let’s say you might want to do an apple pie, but you don’t have the top. It’s very similar. It’s a rustic kind of tart pie kind of thing. We’re going to have the pie crust. We’re going to dump a bunch of apples with their seasoning and butter. And we’re going to fold the sides of the crust all up on it and bake it just like that. The fun thing about it is you could make them individual sizes if you want or you can make it for a big group for a big splash. So, I think because we’ve got company staying with us, I’m going to do the bigger version. Actually, last night Bob said to me, “What are you making for dinner?” And I was like, “Well, we’re going to have a couple of apple recipes.” So, hopefully he brings us something with some protein. Okay, we’re going to start with the crust. This is my very, very, very, very, very favorite crust recipe. Um, it was given to me by a friend named Jillian who was English from England and was a caterer in the area. And I used to go out and help her cater occasionally. And once before she died, it was so cool. She had a whole bunch of women over and she made an apple pie with this crust. I use this crust for all my kiches, for my pies. I mean, it’s so versatile and it is so good. And the great thing is is when you make it, put it into a ball, put cellophane around it, put it in a ziploc freezer bag, store it in your freezer 6 months from now if you want, pull it out, thaw it, and you can use it as your crust. So, if that I mean that’s one of my tips for people. I have a whole freezer full of balls that I bring out for kishes and all sorts of things. And you can find those tips on tip Tuesday on my Hungry for Home Instagram page. I do a tip every Tuesday. All right. So, we’re going to do the crust. We’re going to start out by taking 1 and 1/4 cups of flour. One and a/4 cups. I’m going to put it in a quezin art. There we go. And I’m going to take a/4 teaspoon of salt. And I have a tablespoon of sugar. I’m going to dump those in there. Now, what I’m going to go ahead and do is mix that before I add the butter and the the shortening. That just makes sure it’s all incorporated. and my machine latch is broken. I use it so much. So, all right. From there, what we’re gonna do is I’m going to take six tablespoons of butter. Now, as you know, every stick of butter has eight tablespoons. So, just cut off. And the great thing is there’s a measuring thing right there on the side. Just do it at the six tablespoon mark. Cut it up into pieces. And we’re going to throw it right into there. This is the easiest recipe. I can’t even tell you. All right. And then I take butter Crisco. They’re in sticks. They’re in the baking section, but make sure you get butter. And then I’m going to take four tablespoons of this. And see there’s a tablespoon measuring. And I’m going to cut four tablespoons. And what’s sometimes what I do is I just do a line right there. So then when I take the paper away, it’s there and I can just cut it. It’s just an easier way to measure. After it gets all incorporated, take three to four tablespoons of ice water. Just keeps everything. You don’t want this getting too overworked or cold. So, 3 to four tablespoons. And what I do is I kind of just estimate. Less is more to begin with. You can always add more. Yeah, I might add just a little bit more. All right, that’s what I wanted to see. I wanted to see it start to form a ball all on its own. And I pull it out. I mean, it’s as easy as this. If I were going to put it into a freezer, I would literally take it like this, put cellophane over it, put it in a ziplockc baggie, store it in my freezer. It’ll stay perfectly good. All right, so here we go. I’ve just got some butter on a board. I’m going to take out a rolling pin and I’m going to roll this out. Oh, my dad’s going to be happy. My dad lives in in the little guest cottage on the property. I’m going to make sure I call him over because he loves anything that has Apple in the title. So, whatever thickness that you’re wanting. And then I’m going to set this off to the side because now we’re going to do the apples. All right. Here’s my secret for apples. I had a bunch of recipes today that I was making with apples. What I did, a dear friend was over earlier and said, “Can I help you? Is there anything you need?” And so she went ahead and peeled a whole bunch of apples for me. We stuck them into a bowl of water. That’ll stop them from browning. So I knew I had several hours till I was cooking. So here we go. We’re going to take three apples. Three goodiz apples. I mean, you could do dunking for apples right now. And we’re going to chop these. And I would say dice is a better term. Maybe a third of an inch each piece. You don’t want it too small. So here’s the thing. When we just grated the apples for the apple cake, it’s fine if it all turns to applesauce in the cake. That’s really the point of it to keep the moisture, but you don’t want for an apple pie or an apple cstada for them to all turn into applesauce. That would not make for a very pretty presentation. So you want them to be bigger chunks so they don’t cook too fast. Does your family have favorite things in the fall? I think anything baking in our house is a fall comfort food. And because we have the apple trees, I’m telling you, I think one of my favorite things to anticipate in the fall is watching all the kids outside picking apples with big baskets and making applesauce. Um, which is fun. Or even just delivering fresh apples to friends. All right, but you know, here’s a fun fact about apple trees. They do not put they do not um create apples every year. They sometimes skip a year or two. So, right now, uh, that was something I had to learn because there was a year I was like, “Where’s all the apples? Have our apples all trees all died?” All right, here’s something else that happened with our apple trees. We had a massive storm come through one year and it took down two of our trees. the apple trees literally the roots are were kind of near the surface. So they took them all the way over and the whole root base was out from underneath the ground and I was in tears. I mean I love these apple trees so much and uh but we got the tree people to come. They replanted it and didn’t skip a beat. I think fall too for me it’s a great time to make family recipes um that you don’t maybe ordinarily make. I hope you consider doing a family cookbook. I’m going to show you ours besides the one that I did um my great aunt did just for the family. I’m going to show you right now. One of my great aunts did all the artwork and the other great aunt who was a cook did all the recipes and that’s her handwriting. So to each person in the family again both great aunts participated and did such beauty. I mean I couldn’t do that even on my best day. But the importance of passing down your recipes. It passes down your culture or your family culture and it passes memories down. So think about it. All right. So we’ve got the apples all cooked. Now we’re going to put them into this bowl. That cake is smelling really good. I’m just going to look at it really quick. It is almost done. All right, apples are going in here. And I’m going to toss in with it 1/4 cup of white sugar and 1/4 cup of brown sugar. I’m going to toss it with my hands. And then I’m going to put in 3 tablebsp of flour. And the reason you put in the flour is it’s going to be a binding agent because when the apples start to cook, plus you have the butter that we’re going to put on top, you don’t want all of a sudden literally apple, you know, sludge going everywhere. Okay, I smell it. It’s time. This thing is glorious. I can’t wait to cut into that. Okay, so here we go. We are going to do an a half a teaspoon of cinnamon, 1/ of a teaspoon of allspice, cloves, and salt. So, here we go. And yes, I need glasses. Eighth of a teaspoon. An eighth of is a small amount, but these are strong. Strong spices. All right. Eight of salt. Now mix all of this up really well. And if you want, I might even cut up, let’s cut up a fourth apple because this is a big pie crust and I want it to be really filled. Again, what I like about it is you can do whatever you want. You want to add more, you add more. It’s also a great time of year to take your kids apple picking. if you there are orchards everywhere. Um so take them out picking apples. All right. My favorite is honey crisp. All right. Here’s what we’re going to do. I’m bringing over a pan that I’ve covered in tin foil and I’m going to take I took my uh rolling pin and I’m going to roll it out just like that. And then I’m going to take the apple mixture and I’m going to dump it right into the middle. Leave a few inches on all all the way around it. And then I’m going to take butter, which I have right here. You can use three or four tablespoons of butter. I’m going to chop it up onto the top. I think I might need a little bit more butter. What we’re going to do is we’re going to take the pie crust just like that, like it’s in a pan or something. And I’ve got the oven going at 400° baking. And then I’m going to And you can fold it over kind of pretty, but nothing about this is supposed to be pretty. It’s a rustic tart for a reason. I’m going to go get an egg and I’m going to do a little egg wash. Okay, so we open an egg. and add a large egg. I’m going to add a little bit of water about a tablespoon of water to the egg. Go ahead and mix that egg up. And then you’re going to take something to base it with. And in the event you can’t find your baster, you just take your fingers. I know, but my hands are clean. And you just wipe it all on top. This is what’s going to give it a golden brown kind of look. All right, this is going to go into our oven at 400° for 40 minutes. I mean, two apple things going. It’s going to be the best night ever.