With fall now in full swing here in New England, the leaves have changed colour and the days are growing shorter. It is one of our favorite times of year not least because the wonderful, bountiful apple harvest. It’s a great opportunity to make an apple tart.
We began with a mix of local Empire and Macintosh apples.
While you could use a mandolin to slice your apples, we chose to slice ours by hand as we wanted a bit more rustic look.
After slicing the apples we drizzled them with a splash of freshly squeezed lemon juice, vanilla paste, and a swig of apple brandy. We then set them aside.
The pastry will need some time to rest.
For the pastry you need:
150g Flour
100g Unsalted Butter
50g Ice cold water
25g sugar
pinch of salt
Mix all the dry ingedients then “cut in” the cold butter using a pastry cutter. Keep cutting in untill you have pea sized butter pieces through the flour.
Add the ice cold water and mix together then cover in plastic wrap. Place in the fridge for about thirty minutes.
When you remove the dough from the fridge, place it on a lightly floured surface and roll it out making it bigger than your tart pan.
Once the dough is properly rolled out place the base of your tart pan on the pastry and cut a circle around it allowing about 3/4 to 1″ extra. You will be left with quite a bit of extra dough. We put ours aside and plan to make homemade “pop tarts” tomorrow.
Lay your cut dough into the tart pan and crimp the edges to fit the pan.
Layer the apples in a circular pattern.
Sprinkle the top with brown sugar and a few pats of butter. Place the tart in a 350 oven for about 35 minutes. Keep an eye on it though- every oven is different.
We added a nice quenelle of Haagen Dazs vanilla to the top of ours. The apples were sweet and the crust was (not to brag) perhaps the best pastry crust in existence. I can say this because I was not the one who made the dough…I am just lucky enough to be married to an amazing pastry crust maker. This dessert was easy and delicious and it presents just lovely.
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