APPLE WALNUT GORGONZOLA RUSTIC TART (0020)

Yield: Makes 6 to 8 servings.

Ingredients

1 Pâte Brisée (tart dough) for a 10-inch tart (see all butter crust recipe) or 1 packaged, flat pie crust

1/2 cup walnuts, chopped

1/4 cup crumbled gorgonzola cheese (or blue cheese)

1 tablespoon fresh thyme, chopped, or 1/2 teaspoon dried

2 Tbsp maple syrup

2 large granny smith apples (or other good cooking apples such as jonagold or fuji), peeled, cored, chopped

1 teaspoon of lemon juice (optional)

Method

1 Toss the walnuts, gorgonzola, thyme, chopped apples, and maple syrup together in a medium size bowl. As you are working with the apples (chopping them, mixing them in with the other ingredients), if you want, you can squeeze a little lemon juice on them to help keep them from discoloring. Cover the mixture with plastic wrap while you prepare the crust.

2 Preheat oven to 350°F. Roll out pastry dough to 13-inches, at an 1/8 of an inch thickness. Place pastry dough on a rimmed baking sheet. (Rimmed because the pastry will leak butter during the cooking process.) Mound the filling in the middle of the rolled out dough, and spread out evenly to 1 1/2 inches to 2 inches from the edge of the dough. Pleat the edges of the dough over the filling.

3 Bake for 45 minutes to an hour, until crust is nicely browned. If at any time it looks like the walnuts are getting a little burnt, you can lightly tent a piece of aluminum foil over the center.

Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes before serving. A pizza wheel works great for slicing up the tart.