le tasting room

Loire wine tours, tastings, day trips from Paris & short breaks organised by experienced English wine trade professionals.

Wednesday 10 February 2010

Quick Apple Tart

A quick apple tart that I make regularly for our Loire Wine Discovery lunches. Almost a storecupboard dessert as I normally have some ready made and pre-rolled puff pastry in the fridge and apples are normally in the fruit bowl.

Ingredients
One circle of pre-rolled puff pastry (or make your own if you dare)
2 Granny Smith apples
Sugar for sprinkling
melted unsalted butter for brushing
Apricot jam/redcurrant jelly

Method

Take the pastry out of the fridge about 10 mins before you want to make the tart. Pre-heat the oven to around 190-200(Gas 5/6).

Unroll the pastry and put it onto a baking sheet using the provided greasproof as your base. Cut a thin strip off the circle and having moistened the edges of the remaining circle, stick this around to form an edge about a centimetre thick (this keeps your apples inside).

Decore the apples and cut into fine slices - I use a mandoline but you can do it by hand. Lay the slices on the pastry disc in concentric circles so they look pretty. Use a pastry brush to paint a layer of melted butter on the top.

Sprinkle with sugar and then bake until starting to brown on top and the pastry is cooked (about 20 mins or so).

When you remove it from the oven you can do one of two things. Either, dust with icing sugar, or if your prefer the glazed look, warm up a couple of tablespoons of apricot jam/ redcurrant jelly and then paint over the apples. Either way it's extremely easy and looks brilliant.

Best eaten straight away but fine cold the next day. Serve with cream, creme fraiche, custard or vanilla ice cream.

Sorry there is no photo - it was demolished before I could get out the camera.

We enjoyed it with a half bottle of Les Quarts de Juchepie 2006 from Eddy Oosterlinck-Bracke. A lovely balance between the sugar and acidity, not too sweet. Lovely dried fruit and marmalade aromas with a touch of butterscotch and caramel - excellent with the browned caramelised sugar and apples on the tart.

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