i have to say that the holiday season really kicks off for me with halloween. i just love it. the festive mood, the mix of the sweet and the scary, and all of the nostalgia. halloween really is one of my favorite holidays and the perfect one to begin the holiday season. for me, this is really the holiday to spend with friends (since i don’t have kids…but someday). we usually dress up jezebel, but i didn’t find a fitting costume for luxe this year. jezebel hung out with the dog friend lena…they were a pumpkin and bumble bee, respectively. it is too bad sean didn’t snap any photos of that. i don’t really dress up anymore…i did when i was a kid, but now i just feel silly and impractical. don’t get me wrong, this does not hinder my love for the holiday. i begin decorating well in advance, but my costumes never really come together. this year i did a very loose interpretation of the bride of frankenstein…meaning clothes and jewelry i already have, lots of make-up, and big hair with the tell-tale gray streaking. usually i just wear some sort of animal ears and my normal clothing and call it good.
many, many bags of candy were purchased and pooled in anticipation of the trick-or-treaters, but no little door knockers showed up. last year it was similiar, with only a few kids stopping by…but, let me tell you those kids got lucky because due to kid-to-candy ratio, they made off with a quarter of our supplies each. i was worried that after eating carnitas for dinner, apple tart, and this pb cake (not to mention many beverages for the 21 and over crowd) no one would be in the mood for treats for weeks to come…but sean came to the rescue and promptly ate half of the candy the next day. so dependable.
i have to admit, i bought the dough for the crust of the tart. it was not as good as i would have liked and i anticipated that, but i had a lot on my plate for the day and decided to use a short-cut. i did have a cake, carnitas, and jell-o shots (in four flavors!) to make…so, i hope you will understand. however, if i was to do it right, i would have used the trusty all-butter recipe that i have used in the past. the crust was really thin since my tarte pan is 10-inches and the crusts were 9…that and my laziness explain the funkiness of the lattice top. but, i do kind of think that it added to the holiday charm…a little fugly, but still sweet.
for the apple tart
i liked this tart becuase of the ratio of filling to crust, i think i like it even more than a traditional deep-dish style pie. i guess maybe i’m a rebel?
basically i rolled out the store bought pie crust to fit into my pan and filled it with apple-y goodness and topped that with a lattice, an egg wash and a sprinkling of turbinado sugar. easy…even if you do take the extra time to make the crust. for the apple filling i used about:
4 apples, peeled, cored and sliced
a few grates of fresh nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tbsps of amaretto liquer
1/4 cup brown sugar
then, i mixed it all together in a bowl and dumped it all into the crust. topped it and baked it at 350 F until it was golden and brown and gorgeous.