- There's nothing more classically French
than an apple tart.
The French have really perfected the art of the tart.
They're beautiful, they're elegant, and the recipe
I'm going to share with you
will have your friends thinking that you bought this tart
at a fancy French bakery,
it's that impressive.
The first thing you want to do
is make your tart shell.
In a food processor
you're going to combine
flour,
sugar,
and salt,
and give that just a quick pulse.
Then you're going to add some very cold butter
and pulse it up just until kind of a course meal develops.
Then, in a separate bowl, you're going to mix together
egg yolks and water.
Whisk that up just until combined,
and add that to your dough
just while the machine is running.
You'll start to see a dough beginning to form.
Once the is formed you're going to take it
out of the food processor,
turn it into a ball,
and then press it into a disk.
Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Or, what I like to do because I'm an impatient cook,
is put it in the freezer for 10 minutes.
While your dough is firming up,
then you're going to get one with making your apple
compote.
One of the things that I love about a classic French
apple tart
is the fact that it's composed of three layers.
So you have the crisp crust,
you've got that delicious apple compote,
and then a layer of cooked apples on top.
So, unlike American apple pie where we tend to put
all of the apples in a pie shell and then cover it
with a crust
that then bakes and makes those apples really, really sweet,
the apple in this tart are exposed,
so you really want to choose an apple
that's a little bit sweeter,
and less on the tart side,
and for me, that's a gala apple.
To make the compote
you're going to put your apples in a heavy bottomed
sauce pan,
to that you're going to add
some apple juice
and some water,
sugar,
cinnamon,
and a little bit of lemon zest.
You're going to cover your pot
and let that simmer for about 10 minutes.
Once the liquid has evaporated,
you want to go in with a fork
and just mash those apples up.
What you're doing is basically trying to create
an apple sauce,
it'll be a little chunky at first,
but as it begins to kind of cook down,
and you mash it more, it'll turn into a beautiful
apple sauce.
Set that over to the side, and then you're going to start
slicing all your apples for the third layer:
the top of the apple tart.
So the secret here is really to get those apples paper thin.
You don't need any fancy equipment, in fact,
I think it's better to really cut those apples by hand.
Yes it takes a little bit of work, but this is really
the most impressive part of the tart,
so you do want to take the time to do it right.
Just put on some French music and
settle down and get to work.
(lighthearted music)
At this point you're going to take your firmed up dough,
roll it out,
and put it into your tart shell.
Once your dough is all in your shell,
you're going to take your cooled apple compote
and spread it along the bottom of the tart shell,
just until you have a single layer.
Now comes the fun part:
creating the beautiful apple swirl.
At first when I started to make this tart
I could figure out how to get it as perfect
as the way that the French do,
and then my husband, who actually worked in a bakery
when we was about 13,
came and showed me how to do it, which,
I had to laugh because the guy doesn't cook anything,
and the fact that he knew how to do this,
I was completely impressed.
You want to have the pattern of an escargot,
or a snail,
if you just keep that in mind and start at the top,
and work your way all the way around to the center,
you can't go wrong.
Little by little you just want to overlap those apples
going all the way around the shell,
just until you can't go any further.
Once you get the very center of the tart,
you'll see, you'll have a little hole there,
take the thinnest apple that you have
and kind of fold it in half so it creates almost like
a little rosette,
you'll see you have a beautiful little
circle in the center
that looks kind of like a flower.
Sprinkle with some sugar,
and then you're going to put it in the oven.
Now, at this point you might be wondering why did I not
prebake the tart shell,
and I will be perfectly honest,
the reason is simple,
I just hate that step.
I never really have the time to do it,
I always feel like it adds so much more work to a dessert,
so I try to find ways to get around having to do it,
and the one way that I find that works for me everytime,
is to start your tart in a very hot oven.
So I'm going to bake this tart at about 400 degrees
for about 15 minutes.
What that's going to do is bake that tart shell
really, really quickly
so that it doesn't get soggy,
and then I'm going to lower the oven
to about 350 for the rest of the cooking time.
That way it alleviates having to prebake the tart shell,
but you still end up with a really nice, crisp crust.
Here's the final step of the tart:
We're going to take some apricot jelly
and put it int he microwave just until it's liquified,
then take a pastry brush and brush all of your apples
on the tart,
just until it has a beautiful shine.
And what that will do is just create a really nice sweetness
and tartness, I think apricot is a really great flavor
combination with the apple,
but you also could use apple jelly too
if you couldn't find apricot.
You can serve this tart either with some vanilla ice cream,
or some homemade whipped cream.
Either one would be great.
You'll see, if you make this tart,
your friends and family will be so impressed
they'll think you bought it at a fancy French bakery,
they'll be ooing and ahhing,
everybody will not believe that you made it yourself.
It's that delicious and good.
(lighthearted music)