A beautiful French apple tart

During our recent trip to Nantes in Frances apart from the beautiful flower shops, markets and restaurants the truth is that we really loved the pastry shops and bakeries and we visited many of them.

And since it was the time of year that apples started coming out in the market we tried lot;s of apple desserts, cider, calvados and in general we were applefied... :-)
And in France you can find over 10-15 different varieties of Apples but since it was early in the season we were able to see about 10 different ones.

Apple trees need a lot of cold so the best apples i have tried were in the north of Europe and North America... In Greece we have some wonderful varieties like the Pilafa Apples that grow in the Arkadia area and the wonderful apples from the Perithori village high up in the mountains of the Peloponese.

One of the best apple pies we tried in France was a typical Normandy pie with cream and it was particularly tasty. I really love apple tarts but to be honest they are a bit of a labor of love to make them as you have to make the dough, freeze it, then roll it and put it in the pan, blind bake it and then add the filling and bake some more etc etc... Talking with the lady at the bakery she told us that theirs is a very easy apple tart to make and that i should try it. Aked for the recipe and she gave it to me.

Yesterday i gave it a go and it turned out delicious and only one piece is left this morning..

That is the great thing about this tart.. it is soooo easy to make, only requires one bowl, you do not need to freeze the dough, no blind baking involved... So it is an apple pie that you will be making over and over again...

So let's see what you will need...

Diffuculty: 1 of 3

Duration:20 minutes active time and 45 mins baking

Serves:8

Ingredients

For the dough

90 g butter in room temperature

50 g plain sugar

1 egg yolk

150 g of cake flour

1 pinch of salt

1-2 tblsp cold water

For the filling

2 large apples (about 500 g in total) skin and core removed and cut in 8 pieces

2 medium eggs

100 g sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tblsp Calvados or brandy

a pinch of salt

200 g single cream

2 tblsp dark brown sugar

caster sugar for serving

Method

In a bowl we add the butter and sugar and we mix thoroughly with our hands for 3-4 mins.

Add the yolk and mix it as well.

Add the flour and salt and mix them in quickly.

If we squeeze the mix in our hands it almost comes together as a dough.

Start adding a bit of water at a time and mix it in with a wooden spoon.. Did not take me more than 1 tblsp of water. All must happen quickly.

With the help of our fingers we take the dough and spread it on the base and sides of a 22cm diameter tart pan. Take your time to do that. Will be great if the pan has a removable base but to be honest in my case i just used a pyrex dish... so the first piece was difficult to serve and so i had it.. together with the second piece :-)

Place the pan in the fridge till we prepare the filling.

Preheat the oven at 170 degrees C forced fan if we have it.

Peel and core the apples and cut them in 8 pieces and we fan them out in our pan. Return the pan to the fridge.

In our bowl we add the sugar and eggs and we mix them up with a whisk. Add the vanilla, Calvados, salt and mix well.
Add the cream and we stir it well in the mixture.

Slowly empty the mixture in the pan and if we have some left we can add it in a ramekin and bake it for 10-15 minutes alongside the tart.

Bake the tart for 45-50 minutes.

Serve in room temperature with some caster sugar..

Better to eat it the same day... Do not freeze it.