French Tart

Saturday, August 18, 2007

From Mollie
recipe from bbc.co.uk recipe (slightly changed)

This is a very simple dessert to make and it looks so gorgeous and delicate! Fantastically tasty... definitely recommend it. I've done it with different types of jams to make different colored tarts. yum!

Ingredients

• pastry
• 1/2 pack pastry (enough to make 12" tart base)
• filling
• 900g/2lb cooking apples
• 50g/2oz butter
• 2 tbsp water
• 4tbsp apricot jam
• 50g/2oz caster sugar
• grated rind of ½ lemon
• 225g/8oz eating apples (or cooking apples)
• 1-2 tbsp lemon juice
• about 1 tsp caster sugar for sprinkling
• glaze
• 4tbsp apricot jam (these photos show what happens if you use blackcurrant jam-- makes it pretty!)

to do

1. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas6.3.
2. cut the cooking apples into quarters, remove core and chop the apple into chunks (no need to peel).
3. Melt the butter in a large pan and then add the prepared apples and water. Cover and cook very gently for 10-15 minutes until the apples have become soft and mushy.
4. Rub the apple through a nylon sieve into a clean pan, add the apricot jam, sugar and grated lemon rind. Cook over a high heat for about 10-15 minutes, stirring constantly, until all the excess liquid has been evaporated and the apple mixture is thick. Allow to cool.
5. Roll out the pastry thinly on a lightly floured work surface and use to line a 20cm/8in loose-based fluted flan tin. Cover with greaseproof paper and fill with baking beans. Bake blind in the oven for about 1-15 minutes, then remove the paper and beans and bake for about another five minutes until the pastry at the base of the flan has dried out.


6. Spoon the cooled apple purée into the flan case and level the surface.


7. Peel, quarter and core the eating apples, then slice them very thinly. Arrange in neat overlapping circles all over the apple purée, brush with the lemon juice and sprinkle with the caster sugar.



8. Return the flan to the oven and bake for about a further 25 minutes or until the pastry and the edges of the apples are lightly browned. Allow to cool a little.



9. For the glaze, sieve the apricot jam into a small pan and heat gently until runny. Brush all over the top of the apples and pastry. Serve warm or cold.