Adapted from Melissa Clark’s recipe in The New York Times. I love this tart! The sweet and savory apple tart is both substantial and sophisticated. The chewy, pizza-like crust is fortified with three kinds of flour. The topping is a comforting, mellow jumble of sweet roasted apples and shallots scented with thyme and zipped up with pungent blue cheese.
Melissa Clark says in her article that this tart is no good left over. This statement couldn’t be farther from the truth. Put a slice of leftover tart on the rack of a toaster oven set on “Bake” at 425˚F until the toaster oven beeps that it has reached that temperature. Leftover Apple & Blue Cheese Tart is delectable.
Put in a food processor, then mix:
2 ¼ teaspoons active dry yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
½ cup whole wheat flour
½ cup fine or medium cornmeal
1 ¾ teaspoons fine sea salt
Add to the flours in the food processor:
1/3 cup olive oil
¾ cup lukewarm water
Process until it forms a ball and then 5 seconds longer. Transfer to a lightly oiled bowl and cover loosely with a tea towel or plastic wrap. Allow to rest at room temperature about an hour.
While dough rises, heat oven to 425˚F. In a large bowl, toss together:
2 ¼ pounds apples (Honeycrisp are good) unpeeled but cored, quartered, and sliced ¼-inch thick
¾ pound shallots, peeled, trimmed, and sliced ¼-inch thick
¼ teaspoon black pepper
5 thyme branches
1/4 cup of olive oil
Spread apple mixture onto two large baking sheets. Roast in oven, tossing occasionally, until mixture is tender and golden, about 30 minutes.
Increase oven temperature to 450˚F. Lightly oil a half-sheet baking pan. Punch down dough and transfer to baking pan. Using a rolling pin or your fingers, roll or stretch dough to make an even layer. Remove the woody part of the thyme branches from the apple-shallot mixture. Scatter apple-shallot mixture over crust. Scatter
3 ounces blue cheese, finely crumbled
on top. Drizzle with olive oil and season with flaky sea salt and black pepper. Transfer pan to oven and bake until crust is golden brown and cheese is just melted, 17 to 25 minutes. Cool slightly, then cut into squares and serve.