Every French restaurant has apple tart (tarte aux pommes) as one of its staple desserts. Rightly so because it is quick, easy and delicious.
If you are lucky in the restaurant it will come with creme anglaise (custard) or freshly whipped cream, if you are less lucky your apple tart will be topped by a great blob of squirty canister cream.
Recipe
- Peel, core and slice three eating apples
- Fry the apple slices very gently in butter, with a couple of teaspoons of sugar, until slightly softened
- For the pastry, rub 75g of butter into 150g of flour, with a pinch of salt and 3 teaspoons of sugar. A small amount of water will be necessary to hold it together - perhaps 3 tablespoons of water
Method
- Roll the pastry out flat and put in a tart tin (about 20cm across)
- Drain the apple slices and spread them on the pastry
- Bake in a hot oven (400F / 200C) for about half an hour
- Pour the remaining liquid from frying the apples on to the tart, and return to the oven for 5 minutes
- Eat your tarte aux pommes on its own or with creme chantilly (whipped cream). Ideally not from a squirty canister, but cream that has actually been whisked.