PProvenance
Enter
P
French · Gascony

Tourtiure Gasconne / Tourtire

The tourtière (or tourtiÈre) gasconne is a spiraling pastry of remarkable architectural beauty — paper-thin stretched dough coiled into a towering spiral filled with Armagnac-macerated apples and seasoned with orange flower water, baked to a golden, impossibly flaky crispness. It represents the same hand-stretched pastry tradition as the pastis gascon but in a different structural form: rather than layering sheets, the tourtière rolls the stretched dough around the filling into a continuous spiral that expands during baking into a rose-like pattern of concentric rings. The dough (identical to pastis gascon: flour, egg, water, oil, salt) is stretched on a cloth-covered table to near-transparency, then brushed liberally with melted goose fat. The apple filling (firm apples peeled and sliced thin, macerated in 80ml Armagnac, 100g sugar, and 2 tablespoons orange flower water) is scattered across the dough. Starting from one edge, the dough is rolled into a long, thin cylinder, then coiled into a spiral in a buttered round mold (turtière in Gascon), building from the center outward. The top is brushed with more goose fat and dusted with sugar. Baking at 185°C for 30-35 minutes produces a golden, crackly exterior with layers of crisp pastry and tender apple visible in cross-section. The orange flower water is the distinctive aromantic — its floral perfume, combined with the Armagnac’s warmth and the goose fat’s richness, creates a flavor profile unique to Gascony. The tourtière is traditionally made for Sunday lunch and shared at the table, each person pulling layers from the spiral.

ServesFour to six portions
Total1 hour 15 minutes (including maceration)
Sourced1of 12 in BC
Cook
I

The Market List

The benchmark for each ingredient, and who stocks it near you. Tap a stockist to go straight to the product.

For the dough
250 g
plain flour
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
1
egg
Your own market
100 ml
water
Your own market
30 ml
neutral oil
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
1 tsp
fine salt
Your own market
For the filling
600 g
firm apples
peeled and sliced thin
Origin · New ZealandPurely Artisan Foods · San Diego →
80 ml
Armagnac
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
100 g
caster sugar
Your own market
2 tbsp
orange flower water
Your own market
For assembly
120 g
goose fat
melted
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
20 g
unsalted butter
for the mould
Your own market
30 g
caster sugar
for dusting the top
Your own market

Each tap is counted, so the stockist sees the demand Provenance sends them.

II

The Method

1
Combine flour, salt, egg, water, and oil. Work into a smooth, supple dough. Rest it, covered, for at least 30 minutes at room temperature. The dough is ready when it no longer springs back under the palm.
2
Combine the sliced apples with the Armagnac, 100 g sugar, and orange flower water. Turn to coat and leave to macerate for 30 minutes. The apples should be fragrant with spirit and floral perfume before they go anywhere near the dough.
3
Spread a clean cloth over a large table and dust lightly with flour. Lay the dough at the centre. Working outward from the middle with the backs of the hands and fingertips, stretch the dough slowly and evenly until it reaches near-transparency — the weave of the cloth beneath must be legible through it. This is where the dish lives or dies: any tear patched, any zone left thick, will produce a dense, inelastic layer rather than the open, shatteringly crisp spiral the tourtière demands.
4
Brush the entire surface of the stretched dough generously with melted goose fat. Scatter the macerated apple filling evenly across the dough, leaving a narrow border at the far edge.
5
Beginning at the near edge, use the cloth to lift and roll the dough away from you into a long, thin cylinder, enclosing the filling. Roll with steady, even tension — the cylinder should be compact but not compressed.
6
Butter a round mould. Starting from the centre, coil the cylinder loosely into a spiral, leaving approximately 1 cm between each ring to allow expansion during baking. The spiral should build outward to fill the mould. Brush the top surface generously with the remaining melted goose fat and dust evenly with the 30 g of sugar.
7
Bake at 185 °C for 30 to 35 minutes. The tourtière is done when the top is uniformly deep golden and the pastry sounds hollow and crisp when tapped lightly at the centre — the individual rings of the spiral should be distinct and beginning to separate into their rose-like formation.
III

Quality Hierarchy

01
Reserve — Vintage single-domaine Armagnac in the maceration; goose fat rendered from Gers birds; apples from a named Gascon variety such as Reinette; orange flower water distilled from fresh blossom.
02
Estate — A reliable Bas-Armagnac VSOP; good commercial goose fat; firm heritage apples such as Cox or Blenheim Orange; quality orange flower water from a pharmacie or épicerie fine.
03
Market — Any Armagnac AOC; rendered goose fat from a good butcher or delicatessen; Granny Smith or Braeburn; standard orange flower water.
04
House — A modest Armagnac or Cognac; supermarket duck fat in place of goose; Golden Delicious — acceptable texture, milder flavour; widely available orange flower water.
IV

Sensory Tests

◇Sight. The stretched dough is transparent — the cloth weave is legible through it before rolling.
◇Smell. The macerated apples are fully perfumed with Armagnac and orange flower water before assembly.
◇Sight. The baked spiral is uniformly deep golden; the individual rings have separated into a rose-like pattern.
◇Sound. A light tap at the centre of the baked tourtière returns a hollow, crisp note.
◇Where it lives or dies. The stretched dough must reach near-transparency — thick or torn sheets will produce a dense, inelastic spiral rather than the open, shatteringly crisp layers that define the tourtière.
Pillar V
Cross-cuisine parallels are part of membership.
The dishes this one teaches you, across the cuisines — on every recipe.
Enter · from $49 a year
VI

What to Pour

The pairing
Blandy's Sercial Colheita Madeira
Blandy's · Madeira
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
Fortified wine
From British Columbia

Nothing from British Columbia holds against this yet.

Without alcohol

No pour without alcohol holds against this yet.

Why each one works is part of membership — Enter · from $49 a year →

The whole pairing
Pillar VII
Origin and lineage are part of membership.
Where the dish comes from and how it came to be — on every recipe.
Enter · from $49 a year
Sourced through Provenance

The hands behind the plate.

Purely Artisan Foods
San Diego · firm apples
→