To make a tarte of apples and Orange pilles
"Take your oranges, and lay them in water a day and a night, then seethe them in faire water and honey, and let them seethe till they be soft: then let them soak in the syrup a day and a night: then take them forth and cut them small, and then make your tart and season your Apples with Sugar, Cinnamon and Ginger, and put in a piece of butter, and lay a course of Apples, and between the same course of apples, a course of Oranges, and so course by course, and season your Oranges as you seasoned your Apples, with somewhat more sugar, then lay on the lid and put it in the oven, and when it is almost baked, take Rosewater and Sugar, and boil them together till it be somewhat thick, then take out the Tart, and take a feather and spread the rosewater and Sugar on the lid, and set it into the Oven again, and let the sugar harden on the lid, and let it not burn."
The good Huswifes Handmaide for the Kitchin, London 1590's
notes
The tarts in the picture show them in little pie tins, this was certainly a short cut in both pastry forming and portioning while preparing them for a medieval feast. For a more authentic way of doing them, one would make full size pies, or if they wish to make single servings, to hand form little raised pies.
Direction
To make one pie, use about a 1/4 less apples than you would normally use. If you use 8 large apples normally, then use 6 instead. Now a note on soaking oranges: if you soak the oranges for a night in a mixture of water and honey, it will soften the peels but it will only work really good on thin peeled oranges. One way to speed this up for thik rinds, is to slice the ornages up allowing the sugar water to penetrate the whole peel. If you were going to try this method, it would be adviseable to remove the flesh and put it aside until the peels are ready. When the peels are soft, then mingle them with the orange flesh and a little of the honey-water.
Line a pastry pan with your paste (I sometimes use a spring pan for a mould), leaving enough past aside for a lid. Then take your apples (sliced) and add to them a mixture of sugar, cinnamon and ginger. The spices are to taste so start with 1/2 of sugar and add to it a tablespoon each of cinnamon and ginger. If it isn't spicy enough tp your tastes, add a tsp more until your satisfied with it. What you don't add to your pie, can be kept for further uses and remember to keep some aside to season your oranges the same as you did for your apples. The original recipe says to use more sugar for your oranges, but you might not find this necessary with most oranges. filling the pie: Take your apple mixture and layer the bottom of the tart and dot it with butter, then take your orange mixture and layer over that and dot with butter and then continue with the same layers until the tart is full and then cover it with your paste.
Bake this in a 425F oven for about 30 minutes.
While the pie is baking, boil some rosewater and sugar together until it makes a syrup. If your rosewater is strong, water it down a bit (you will have to do this by taste). Use half as much sugar as you have rosewater. After about 30 minutes of baking, remove the pie and brush the rose syrup onto the piecrust and then put the pie back in the oven at about 375F and bake for another 10-15 minutes.
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