Since we are in the middle of apple season, I couldn't help writing a post about the lovely tarts I adapted few years ago from The English Hvswife. Perhaps you have already read Gervase Markham's housekeeping guide that was originally published in 1615 and contains the oldest known recipe for Banbury cake. (You will find this one adapted here.)
Now, I have yet to meet a person who doesn't like apple tart, pie or cake but adapting historic recipes, with or without apples, often leads to surprises. The combination of flavors used in medieval, Renaissance and Early Modern cuisines is odd and, in many cases, unpalatable. Of course, the spice mix (of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice & cardamom) used in modern versions of apple pie may vary as well but if you have read the post about the 'oldest Engligh apple-tart', you know that 14th century gourmets enjoyed their apple pie flavored with saffron, which is a rather unusual option nowadays. Accordingly, Markham's tarts are flavored with rosewater, orange, and even wine. To say the least, these pairings sound (and taste) unusual. You can always leave out the extra ingredient but then you will miss the chance to find out what historic apple pie tasted like.
Apples have been a staple food since very early in history so even if Markham's housekeeping guide devotes little space to baking, his chapter on tarts includes five different recipes for apple pie or tart. Although by 'tart', we generally mean the open dessert, all of his pies are closed. Codling-pie is enriched with cream which is mashed into the filling, apple-tart is ornamented with elaborate shapes of dough. The filling is sometimes pre-cooked and, in two cases, the lid is glazed with a mixture of butter & rosewater.
Until the middle of the 19th century and sometimes even later, no cookbook gave the amounts of ingredients needed to make a recipe of anything, either because the readers already knew how to cook or because they had someone near to guide them, and The English Hvswife is no exception. A housewife was also expected to use her common sense. In fact, the only adapting Markham's recipes need has to do with quantities. Of course, the real protagonist in apple tart is & always has been the apple itself. Markham suggested using either pippins or codlins. (The latter also meant 'a green or under-ripe apple' or 'that is gently cooked in water'.) The amount needed for each recipe likely depended on the size of your pan. The same applied to the ingredients used for the dough. Although no instructions are given about it, Early Modern tarts were already baked in edible shells. Until the Middle Ages, desserts (including apple tart) were generally sweetened with honey, dried fruit and spices but Markham's recipes do call for an -unspecified- amount of sugar. As there is no mention of 'fine' or 'powedered' sugar that we find elsewhere, we must assume that raw cane sugar was used.
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| pippin or codlin tart |
PIPPIN-TART by Gervase Markam
"How to make a pippen tart.
Take Pippins of the fairest, and pare them, and then diuide them iust
in the halfes, and take out the chores cleane: then hauing rold out the
coffin flat, and raisd vp a small verdge of an inch, or more high, lay
in the Pippins with the hollow side downeward, as close one to another
as may be: then lay here and there a cloue, and here and there a whole sticke of Sinamon, and a little bit of butter: then couer all clean ouer with Sugar,
and so couer the coffin, and bake it according to the manner of Tarts;
and when it is bakt, then draw it out, and hauing boyled butter and rose water together, anoynt all the lid ouer therewith, and then scrape or strow on it good store of Sugar, and so set it in the ouen againe, and after serue it vp."
slightly adapted from the original
I n g r e d i e n t s
for the shell: 250g sifted all-purpose flour, 125g cubed butter, 1tbsp caster sugar, 1 egg yolk, 3tbsp cold milk | for the filling: 4-6 red apples, 100g caster sugar, a cinnamon stick, 5-6 cloves, 50g butter, 1tbsp rosewater | for the glaze: 75g butter, 1tbsp rosewater | for topping: 100g demerara sugar
M e t h o d
1. Combine the flour with the sugar. Rub the butter into the flour until it resembles coarse meal. Add the egg yolk and milk and knead lightly. Shape into a ball, wrap in cling film and refrigerate for 15 minutes. 2. Peel, core and quarter the apples. In the mean time, preheat the oven to 210C. 3. Roll 2/3 of the tart dough about 1cm thick and fit into a 23cm round tart pan. Place the fruit into the shell, with pieces of butter, cinnamon and cloves in between. Cover with sugar. 4. Roll out the last 1/3 of the tart dough and place on top of the filling. Prick with a fork or make 3-4 slits with a knife. 5. Bake for 10 minutes, lower the oven temperature to 180C and bake for 20 minutes. In the mean time, heat the butter in a small pan. Add the rosewater and stir very well. 6. Glaze the tart using a brush, dust with sugar and bake for another 10 minutes or until golden. 7. Leave to cool before serving.
N o t e
To make an open tart, reduce the dough ingredients by one third. To make codlin-tart, use green apples that you will codle in water before placing into the shell.
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| open apple pie with cream |
CODLIN-PIE by Gervase Markham
"A codling-pie. Take Codlins as before said, and pill them and diuide them in halfes, and chore them, and lay a leare thereof in the bottom of the pie: then scatter here and there a cloue, and here and there a peece of whole Sinamon; then couer them all ouer with Sugar, then lay another leare of Codlins, and doe as beforesaid, and so another, till the coffin be all filled; then couer all with Sugar, and here and there a Cloue and a Cinamon-sticke, and if you will a slic't Orange pill and a Date; then cover it and bake as the pies of that nature: when it is bak't, draw it out of the ouen, and take of the thickest and best Creame with good store of Sugar, and give it one boile or two on the fire: then open the pie, and put the Creame therein, and mash the Codlins all about; then couer it, and hauing trimd the lidde (as was before shewed in the like pies and tarts) set it into the ouen again for halfe an houre, and so serue it forth."
slightly adapted from the original
I n g r e d i e n t s
for the shell: 250g sifted all-purpose flour, 125g cubed butter, 1tbsp caster sugar, 1 egg yolk, 3tbsp cold milk | for the filling: 4-6 green apples, 100g caster sugar, a cinnamon stick, 5-6 cloves, 200ml double cream | for topping: 100g sugar
M e t h o d
1. Combine the flour with the sugar. Rub the butter into the flour
until it resembles coarse meal. Add the egg yolk and milk and knead
lightly. Shape into a ball, wrap in cling film and refrigerate for 15
minutes. 2. Peel, core and quarter the apples. In the mean time, preheat the oven to 210C. 3.
Roll 2/3 of the tart dough about 1cm thick and fit into a 23cm round
tart pan. Place the fruit into the shell, with cinnamon and cloves in between. Cover with sugar. 4. Roll out the last 1/3 of the tart dough and place on top of the filling. Prick with a fork or make 3-4 slits with a knife. 5.
Bake for 10 minutes, lower the oven temperature to 180C and bake for 20
minutes. 6. Remove the lid and pour the cream over the filling. Mash using a spoon, then cover, dust the lid with sugar and bake for another 10 minutes or until golden. 7. Leave to cool before serving.N o t e
To make an open tart, reduce the dough ingredients by one third.
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