Rabotte de Pommes ou Douillon Norman

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Large mixing bowl
• •Rolling pin
• •Apple corer or small melon baller
• •5 to 6 cm fluted round cutter
• •Heavy rimmed baking sheet
• •Baking parchment
• •Pastry brush
• •Small paring knife

Instructions

1. 1

   Make the fine paste

   Combine the 1¾ cups flour, pastry sugar, and salt in a wide bowl. Add the cold cubed butter and make a sablage, rubbing the butter into the flour with your fingertips until the mixture resembles coarse sand with a few lentil-sized flakes remaining. Beat the cold egg, work it through the crumbs, then add 1 tablespoon of ice water. Squeeze a handful: if it holds, stop; if it falls apart, add the remaining water a teaspoon at a time. Bring the dough together without kneading, flatten it into a disc, wrap, and chill for 30 minutes. If it feels sticky, don’t bury it in flour. Chill it until firm and it will roll properly.

2. 2

   Heat the oven

   Set a heavy rimmed baking sheet on the middle rack and heat the oven to 450°F (230°C), or 410°F (210°C) with convection, for at least 30 minutes. Cut a sheet of baking parchment large enough to hold all four rabottes and place it on a flat board or an inverted cool baking sheet so the pastries can be slid onto the hot metal together.

3. 3

   Prepare the apples

   Mash the softened butter and ¼ cup sugar into a rough paste. Peel the apples, then core each from the stem end without piercing through the blossom end; the intact base helps contain the syrup. This is the Bonne-femme preparation called for by the entry: a whole apple, hollowed, buttered, and sugared. Pack one-quarter of the butter-sugar mixture into each cavity, keeping the filling just below the rim, then pat the apples dry.

4. 4

   Enclose and seal

   Reserve about one-sixth of the chilled dough for the lids and divide the rest into four equal pieces. On a lightly floured surface, roll each piece into a round about 7 inches (18 cm) across and ⅛ inch (3 mm) thick. Set a filled apple upright in the center, brush the outer edge of the paste lightly with cold water, and lift opposite sides around the fruit. Join them without stretching, bring up the remaining sides, and pinch every seam into a continuous seal. Trim away any heavy knot at the crown. If the paste cracks or turns translucent over the apple, stop and patch it with a thin, water-moistened scrap, feathering the edges firmly into the wrapper. Ça se rattrape. A patch now is invisible after gilding; a hole in the oven becomes burnt syrup.

5. 5

   Crown, gild, and streak

   Roll the reserved paste ⅛ inch (3 mm) thick and cut four fluted roundels about 2¼ inches (5 to 6 cm) across. Moisten the sealed crown of each rabotte and press a roundel over it as a lid. Gild the pastries, meaning brush every visible surface lightly and evenly with beaten egg. Use the back of a small knife to streak shallow curved lines over the paste without cutting through it. If the dough has softened enough to take fingerprints, chill the assembled rabottes for 10 minutes before baking.

6. 6

   Bake hot and fast

   Arrange the rabottes on the prepared parchment, leaving space between them, then slide the paper onto the thoroughly heated baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes, until the paste is deep butter-gold with bronze ridges and the bases feel firm. A thin skewer slipped through the crown should enter the apple with gentle resistance; the fruit should be tender but still hold its shape. If your oven has lost heat and the paste remains pale, give it 2 to 3 minutes more. If the top bronzes too quickly, lay a small loose piece of foil over it while the base finishes.

7. 7

   Rest and serve

   Move the rabottes from the hot sheet before any stray sugar hardens around their bases, then rest them for 10 minutes. Serve warm and whole, letting each person break through the gilded lid to reach the apple and its butter-sugar syrup. Never apologize at your own table. À table!

Chef Tips

• •Choose genuinely small apples, about 4 to 4½ ounces each. Reine des Reinettes, Cox’s Orange Pippin, or a small Braeburn will soften without collapsing. A large supermarket apple cannot cook in the book’s hot fifteen-minute bake, however sternly you look at the oven.
• •Butter, not margarine. The filling has only two ingredients, and butter supplies both its flavor and the syrup’s round texture. We don’t apologize for butter.
• •Use very little flour when rolling. Loose flour caught in a seam prevents the dampened paste from bonding, which is precisely where the syrup escapes.
• •A dry, lightly sparkling Norman cider is the natural glass beside a rabotte. The pastry needs no cream, sauce, or decorative garnish; cut it open and let the apple provide its own finish.

Advance Preparation

• •The pâte fine à foncer can be made up to 2 days ahead and kept tightly wrapped in the refrigerator. Let it stand for 5 to 10 minutes if it is too firm to roll without cracking.
• •Do not fill and wrap the apples far in advance. Sugar draws juice from the fruit, and that liquid softens the seam; assemble no more than 20 minutes before baking.
• •Leftover rabottes keep for 1 day in the refrigerator. Reheat them on a baking sheet at 375°F (190°C) for about 8 minutes to restore the paste before serving.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 220g)