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French Apple Tart
May 4, 2007
I was going through some photos of today’s
dish on my computer when elder son happened to walk into my study.
He took one look at the screen then hopefully inquired “Is that
somewhere in the house?”
Unfortunately I had to break the sad news
that I’d made the tart for his grandmothers during my Easter visit
to New Zealand, and that every crumb had been consumed, the last
piece as a late night snack my mother-in-law couldn’t resist. I
did promise to make another for him, but the apples have been disappearing
from the fruit bowl as fast as I have been buying them at local
farmers’ markets.
Men seem to love the combination of apples
and pastry. Years back, in my single days, I would occasionally
invite some of my bachelor colleagues round for a Sunday roast.
I had this theory that if I served a half-decent apple pie, they
just might do the dishes after lunch. It generally worked. In fact,
I ended up marrying one of those bachelors...
In those days I made a double-crust pie with
flaky pastry, filled it with clove-scented cooked apples and grated
a little sharp cheese over the top pastry layer before baking it.
These days I like the French-style open tart
with a sweet short crust and pretty overlapping slices of apple.
French Apple Tart
Pastry
180g flour
90g butter
50g icing sugar
1 egg yolk
iced water
Place the flour, butter and icing sugar in
a food processor and process until it is crumbly. Add the egg yolk
and process again then gradually add in a little iced water until
the mixture starts to stick together – press is between your finger
and thumb to test.
Turn out onto a floured surface and knead
lightly then roll out and use to line a loose-bottom tart tin.
Prick the bottom with a fork then refrigerate for 30 minutes. Cover
the pastry with aluminium foil and fill with dried beans and bake
blind for 10 minutes at 190C. Remove the beans and foil and bake
a further five minutes.
Filling
10 medium apples
40g butter
25g castor sugar
45mls brandy
jam to glaze
Peel, core and roughly chop six of the apples
and place in a saucepan with the butter, castor sugar, brandy,
and the juice and rind of one lemon. Simmer gently until the apple
is tender, stirring from time to time so the mixture does not burn.
Puree in a blender or mash with a fork or potato masher. (Instead
of making apple puree for the filling, quinces can be used when
they're in season.)
Spoon this mixture into the partially cooked
pastry shell. Peel and slice the remaining apples (three may be
enough) and arrange on the apple puree in overlapping slices. Brush
with the juice of the second lemon.
Return tart to the oven and bake at 180C
for a further 30 minutes until the apple slices are tender.
Mix a couple of tablespoons of jam with a
little water and brush over the apple slices to glaze.
Serve warm with whipped cream or ice cream.
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