Hale Apple Farm

Mercado Kitchen: Tarte Tatin

Posted on by Mission Community Market in Blog, Hale Apple Farm, Marla Bakery, Mercado Kitchen, Recipes | Leave a comment

Bowl_of_apples

Try this sophisticated French twist on an apple pie and wow your guests at a dinner party! The tarte is baked in a skillet and turned out fresh from the oven onto a platter and voilà, dessert is served. This fun recipe is courtesy of our very own Mission Community Market vendor Marla Bakery. If you’ve tried the hand pies they sell at the market you know how wonderfully flaky the crust is. Here is your chance to try your hand at that flaky goodness yourself using their recipe!

Visit Hale’s Apple Farm at the market to find a delicious variety of seasonal apples organized from sweet to tart. They recommend baking with a variety of apples – we used Sleeping Beauties and Romes! Happy baking!

TarteTatin1

Tarte Tatin
Recipe by Marla Bakery
Yield 12″ Tarte Tatin
Ingredients:
For Pastry Dough:
1 lb pastry flour
1 tsp salt
12 oz (3 sticks) unsalted butter
1/3 c ice water
1/3 c bourbon
For Tarte Tatin:
7-9 good baking apples (e.g. Sleeping Beauty, Rome, etc from Hale Apple Farm)
1/2 c sugar
1/2 c brown sugar
juice of 1 lemon
pinch of salt
2 Tbl unsalted butter
Instructions:
For Dough:
Mix salt and flour together. Pour out onto a table and cut in cold butter, until very small pea sized chunks. Mix the ice water and bourbon together. Pour over dry mixture and work in with a bench scraper or pastry cutter. Try not to use your hands, this will warm the butter. Mixture will be very dry and crumbly, fold and press until you have a shaggy, cohesive mass. Wrap in parchment and chill at least 6 hours.
For Tarte Tatin:
Preheat oven to 375.

To make the Tarte Tatin, roll out dough to a rough circle about 1/4″ thick. Take a cast iron skillet or saute pan and trace the circumference of the pan onto a piece of parchment. Cut this out and use as a guide to cut a circle in the dough. Mark the middle of the dough with four small cuts and chill dough round. Meanwhile, peel apples and cut into quarters, slicing out the core. Mix apples, sugars, salt, and lemon juice and let sit until apples release their juice, about 20 mins. Strain apples and reserve juice. In your skillet or saute pan melt butter. and pour in sugar/apple juice mixture. Bring to a boil and stir until mixture begins to caramelize. When mixture is a golden brown color turn off heat and carefully place apples cut side up in pan. Don’t burn yourself! Apples should completely cover the bottom of the pan. Bring back to medium high flame and cook for 10 mins, covered with a lid to tenderize apples. Turn off heat, and carefully place your dough round on top of the apples and slide into the preheated oven for 25 to 30 mins. When done, pastry should be dark golden brown and you should see caramel bubbling around the sides of your pan. Pull out of the oven and let cool for 7 mins.

Tarte Tatin in skillet
Carefully place a sheetpan or large plate over the top of the pan and quickly flip over to release your tarte tatin. If any apples are stuck to the pan, you can remove them with knife or spatula and place them on the pastry, no one will mind! Cool to room temp and serve with sweetened creme fraiche, ice cream or whatever your heart may desire. Enjoy!
TarteTatin2
Photos by Carletta Wong

Spotted at MCM: Craftsman and Wolves

Posted on by Mission Community Market in Arata Farm, Blog, Hale Apple Farm, Spotted at MCM, Tomatero Farm | Leave a comment

CandW

Chef William and sous chef Connie from nearby Mission patisserie Craftsman and Wolves were spotted shopping at the Mission Community Market last Thursday. They are big fans of the market and can be found shopping at several vendor stalls almost every week. Last week they filled their cart with a variety of seasonal produce: kale and watermelon radishes from Tomatero Farm, apples from Hale Apple Farm, and quince from Arata Farm.

Right now as the seasons are changing there are a rush of changes at the patisserie, with new items in the works. Chef William told us his favorite season is always the next one with all the excitement of new seasonal ingredients becoming available.

What will Craftsman and Wolves be crafting with the produce from the market? Here’s a rundown:

Apples from Hale Apple Farm will be the market fruit paired with ‘damn fine’ granola and strauss yogurt. They are also for this exquisite apple & coconut tart with vanilla on a rye palet.

CandW_appletart

Photo by Craftsman and Wolves

Kale from Tomatero Farm is for the savory kale salad with white butter beans, parmesan cheese, and croutons. The watermelon radishes will be dehydrated into pretty pink petal-like chips to top this new root vegetable croissant laminated with harissa butter.

CandW_croissant

Photo by Craftsman and Wolves

Quince from Arata Farm is for a new cake being developed. The quince will be cooked sous vide for four hours and then paired with brown butter, pomegranate, and blonde caramel. Sounds amazing! Here’s a sneak peak of the prepared fruit – check back at Craftsman and Wolves for when this new seasonal cake will be available.

CandW_quince

Photo by Craftsman and Wolves

Craftsman and Wolves is located at 746 Valencia Street (between 18th and 19th Streets) in San Francisco’s Mission District. Open Monday-Thursday 7am-7pm, Saturday 8am-8pm, and Sunday 8am-7pm. Stop by and check it out and you might taste some Mission Community Market produce on their menu!

Note: MCM offers a reserved parking space for local restaurants and chefs picking up large orders at the market (at the end of Bartlett near 21st Street).

Mercado Kitchen: Quince Ratafia Two Ways

Posted on by Mission Community Market in Arata Farm, Blog, Hale Apple Farm, Mercado Kitchen, Recipes | Leave a comment

Ah Quince, you perplexing fruit with a storied past. It looks like an apple or a pear, but don’t you dare take one bite of it raw! Supposedly, 17th Century cookbooks contain more recipes for quince than any other orchard fruit, so I wonder what cooks living hundreds of years ago knew that I don’t! But both Arata Farms and Hale’s Apple Farm have gorgeous quince right now at MCM so I decided to go ahead and give a new recipe a whirl.

IMG_1016

Tired of the usual jam and preserve recipes, I decided to try something that’s not for you teetotalers out there–an old-timey infused liqueur known as “ratafia” which is a name given to cordials made of different fruit, one varietal including quince. The recipe I adapted called for two quinces, but by the time I was finished grating the first one I had almost filled up an entire quart-sized jar. So I I decided to try two slight variations on the same recipe, using one fruit per jar. The main difference is that one recipe contains raw grated quince and the other contains chopped quince that I cooked down slightly. I’ll share the results with you in a few weeks when the infusion process is complete–though I feel confident both will probably be mighty tasty. The ingredients I used were the same for both recipes – these quantities will make you enough ratafia for about one quart-sized jar.  Read more

Mercado Kitchen: Cinnamon Raisin Apple Muffins

Posted on by Mission Community Market in Great Valley Poultry, Hale Apple Farm, Mercado Kitchen, Recipes, Terra Savia | 2 Comments

Photos taken by Daniel Sullivan Jr. Instagram: @dsulliphoto

DJS_4394

Following the advice of farmer Dave from Hale’s Apple Farm, I used these beautiful pink pearls for this recipe as they not only offered a vibrant pop of color but also a unique flavor difference. As pink pearl season has sadly ended, we’re confident that this recipe would be equally delicious with any of his apples – ask Dave what’s good this week and perhaps even use a mix of two or three of his varieties! Recipe found after the jump.

DJS_4402

 

DJS_4413

Some notes before you start: Depending on the size of your muffin tin, this batch should produce about 12-15 muffins. I opted for using coconut oil to grease my muffin tin instead of paper liners but you can use the method that best serves you. The batter won’t expand too much when baking, so don’t be afraid to add a little extra to each cup if you want a nice shapely muffin top. Lastly, we kept nuts out of this batch but if you want to add a little meaty crunch, go ahead and throw in a half cup of chopped walnuts when adding the apple chunks and raisins.

Read more

Apple Season is Here at MCM!

Posted on by Mission Community Market in Blog, Hale Apple Farm, Vendors, Zuckerman's Farm | Leave a comment

Last week marked the official start of Apple Season at MCM. Our favorite Sebastapol apple farmer, Dave Hale, brought with him the first crops of the season, and they did not disappoint.

Pink Pearls pictured below from Hale Farm are a customer favorite for their unique pink flesh that rivals watermelons in brightness and color.

pink pearl

Hale Farm grows over 30 varieties of apples, including Gravensteins, which they also have at MCM right now. These delicious apples are native to Sebastapol, a little bit tart, and perfect for pies. This week, Delta-based Zuckerman’s Farm will also have their first crop of Gala Apples which we can’t wait to try!

Come on down to MCM this week and have a taste of these varieties of apples, and get excited for the bounty that is yet to come this autumn.