Choosing Tart Over Pie

I know this is a trivial matter to some people. If your choosing pie over tart it's fine with me but hey why not like both? I mean pies have it's own sets of unique features and also tart. A tart is a baked dish consisting of a filling over a pastry base with an open top not covered with pastry. The pastry is usually shortcrust pastry; the filling may be sweet or savoury, though modern tarts are usually fruit-based, sometimes with custard. Tartlet refers to a miniature tart. Examples of tarts include jam tarts, which may be different colours depending on the flavour of the jam used to fill them, and the Bakewell tart.

The categories of 'tart', 'flan', and 'pie' overlap, with no sharp distinctions, though 'pie' is the more common term in the United States. The French word tarte can be translated to mean either pie or tart, as both are mainly the same with the exception of a pie usually covering the filling in pastry, while flans and tarts leave it open. The Italian crostata recipe, dating to at least the mid-1400s, has been described as a "rustic free-form version of an open fruit tart". Early medieval tarts generally had meat fillings, but later ones were often based on fruit and custard.


Ingredients

10" uncooked pie shell
5 tart apples
1 cup pastry cream (crème patissiere), cooled
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
For the pastry cream:
4 egg yolks
½ cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon all purpose flour
2 cups milk
½ vanilla bean, cut in half lengthwise

1. Begin by making the pastry cream; in a large mixing bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar. Whisk in the flour. Set aside.
2. In a large saucepan placed over high heat, pour the milk and vanilla. As soon as the mixture begins boiling, remove the pan from the stove. Remove the vanilla bean. Scrape out the seeds from the bean and pour them into the milk.
3. Whisk ½ the milk mixture into the egg mixture.
4. Place the saucepan back onto the stove over high heat. As soon as the mixture starts boiling, pour everything in the bowl into the saucepan, whisking constantly until smooth. Once the mixture starts boiling again, stir and boil for 2 minutes more.
5. Remove the pan from the stove and place some plastic wrap directly on the surface of the pastry cream; this prevents a skim from forming on the top of the cream. Cool completely.
6. Transfer the pre-made pie dough to a pie pan. Refrigerate.
7. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
8. Peel, core, and thinly slice the apples.
9. Spread the pastry cream over the bottom of the pie shell. Lay the apple slices over the cream. With a pastry brush, brush the melted butter over the apples. Sprinkle with sugar.
10. Bake until golden, about 50 minutes. Remove from the oven and place on a wire rack. Carefully remove the pie from the pan and serve.