Apple & Armagnac Gascon Croustade Cake

An Easy Cook-at-Home Version of a Classic French Pastry Dessert

Nov 22, 2008 Kerry Swash

A Gascon Croustade is traditionally prepared for religious fetes and family get togethers. It is a perfect alternative light pastry dessert to follow Christmas Dinner.

The Gascon Croustade is a deliciously light dessert which consists of multiple layers of crisped flaky pastry, interspersed with soft apple imbued with Armagnac. Any dessert apple will suffice, but locally they prefer the ‘Bertanne’, an old variety of Russet Golden Delicious grown in the warm valleys of the neighbouring Tarn and Garonne.

The Gascon Croustade or Pastis Gascon, as it’s sometimes known, has it’s roots in ancient Gascony with the development of Armagnac, some 700 years ago, and the arrival of filo pastry - thought to have been first introduced to France by the invading Moors in 781!

To really achieve the fine pastry ribbons required for the croustade – voiles de mariee (bridal veils) as they’re known in France – takes years of practice. If you’re lucky enough to be in South West France the place to taste the best professional croustade is Croustade D’oc, Chemin d’enducasse, Gimont (05 62 67 82 33). Fortunately modern times mean that this easy cook-at-home version can use store-bought blocks of filo and puff pastry.

The croustade is not unique to Gascony, all the fruit -growing regions in France have their own versions of it and elsewhere the apple is often replaced with prune, cherry, bilberry or apricot. So feel free to substitute the apple with a fruit of your choice. Similarly the armagnac.

Whatever the fruit and whatever the flavour, the croustade is best served warm (not hot) with vanilla ice cream, creme anglais, or single pouring cream and a light sweet apple relish.

Gascon Croustade Aux Pommes

Serves: Serves 6

Preparation Time: 30mins

Cooking Time: 20mins

Ingredients

• 10 apples
• 1 round of shop bought puff pastry
• 4 sheets of filo pastry
• 3 soup spoons d'armagnac
• 2 soup spoons of caster sugar
• 1 sachet pf vanilla sugar (75g)
• 20g butter

Method

1. Peel, core and quarter 4 apples, cut them in fine slices and marinade them in a soup spoon of armagnac diluted with a little warm water.
2. Meanwhile make a compote with the remaining 6 apples by peeling, coring and cutting into cubes and then simmering with a little water and the vanilla sugar for 10 to 15 minutes until they make a nice pulp.
3. Meanwhile roll out the puff pastry in the bottom of your flan dish (28cm) and cook blind in the oven at 220°C. for 15 mins – but check the instruction on the pastry packet to be sure.
4. Remove the pastry from the oven and spread the apple compote over the pastry base. Then place the marinated apple slices on top of that and sprinkle a soup spoon of caster sugar over the top.
5. Melt the butter and mix with 2 spoons of armagnac, then brush each sheet of filo with this imbued butter and lay them one by one on top of the apples, gently folding them into rippling waves as you lay them down. The last sheet can be cut into strips before placing it down to give a ribbon ripple effect on the final tart. Cover the whole with a soup spoon of sugar.
6. Cook for 20 minutes in a preheated oven at 200°C.
7. Bon Appetit!

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Gascon Croustade