Thin Apple Tart - French Apple Pie

A French classic recipe : "Tarte fine aux pommes" = Thin apple tart

The Tarte fine is made with really thin slices of fruit, 

you could make some with pear or apricot but the most famous one is the apple tart.

Being so thin makes it evenly cooked, being golden but not black 

and creates a beautiful pattern on the tart.

You can make one with a Puff dough or a Cookie dough as you prefer.

It can be flavoured with cinnamon and served with whipped cream or a vanilla ice cream.

  Preparation    Slicing the apples takes some time, making a home-made dough too. Beside that if everything is well explained, it's easy and it's really quick to bake.

  Tasting    Amazing, so thin and crusty with the dough, tender and sweet.

  To conclude    It's a classic you are sure everybody will love it. You won't take any risk doing that recipe, it's an universal one !

For a 9inch tart or 4 small individual tarts.

   You will need :   

1 puff dough 

Add 1/2 tsp of vanilla exract in it

- with the water, in the four -

5 or 6 apples

- golden, braeburn, boskop... -

Dark brown sugar, cinammon, vanilla...

For a syrup

I baked mine with a little syrup in the oven

Stir 4tbsp of powdered sugar in 6tbsp of water and 1tsp of vanilla extract

I poured the half during the cooking and the other half at the end.

- my father doesn't like cinammon, so I wanted to add some vanilla :) -

Turn the oven on at 440°F

Prepare the dough

Flatten your dough : 0.1 inch thick (2 to 3 mm)

Cut the extremity in a circular shape with a clean and smooth knife so the dough will rise well.

Using the opposite side of a knife-blade. Draw a circle on the dough at 0.7 inch (2cm) from the edges.

This will show the limit to place the apples and will make the dough rise mostly on the edges.

Set aside in the fridge.

Prepare the apples

Rinse and peel your apples, cut them in halves and remove the seeds with a spoon or a small knife.

To keep a nice shape, cut them in thin slices in the height, not in their width. 

Place them on the dough, without separating them from each other. 

Start by putting them as an outer circle, going one way (let's say clokwise) then, do an inner circle going counterclockwise. Fill your pie with those circles of apples, keeping them pretty tight but flat.

For a small pie : 2 half circle going clockwise, and counterclokwise, meeting in the center.

Use the small pieces of apple to fill the middle or the small holes.

Spread some dark brown sugar on the top and bake 30 to 40 minutes

After 15 minutes, Pour some syrup on it

If the extremity of an apple starts to darken, use a knife to flatten it.

- here, I had to flatten thatpiece of apple -

You can easily let oit bake a few more minutes to be sure your dough is well cooked

When out of the oven, spread some more sugar, cinammon and serve with syrup, 

vanilla ice cream or whipped cream !

This tart has to be eaten the day it's baked OR on the morrow, 

put it back in the oven at 300°F for 5 to 10 minutes.

- Keep cooking my child, what's next  ? -

Tarte Tatin - Turnover apple pie

I'm back at my parent's place for Christmas and when I got back, my mom wanted a Tarte Tatin really badly, she had already bought apples and looked through recipes !
We went through more recipes to compare and chose the best way to bake it. It was a nice teamwork.

~~ The result was a bit too good for our bodyline ~~

We looked in "Le Larousse de la cuisine" which is like an encyclopedia about cooking,
all the famous recipe... it's a dictionnary. Then we checked the recipe of Christophe Féron
in Christophe Felder's book : "Exquises Pâtisseries pour les fêtes".
We've also checked the recipe of Guy Savoy... etc.
To conclude, there is many way to proceed. 

Finally we did not pick the easy one,
but the most interesting one.

So we made a mix of those recipes.
Not too much butter, a home made shortcrust dough, vanilla flavoured (or cinnamon)
Baked on the stove and in the oven.

---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----

For 10 people (9inch pie)Pour une tarte tartin d'une dizaine de personne (22cm de diamètre) 

Use a high mold (3inch at least) 
If you have a big pan, that goes in the oven and on the stove, it's fine too.

   You will need :   

1 shortcrust dough flavoured
- vanilla or cinnamon -

5 to 6 apples, depending on their size

- golden, reinettes, boskop, braeburn... a firm one -

 1/3 cup of sugar, white or brown (2.8oz/80gr)

1/2 stick of butter (5tbsp/1.8oz/50gr)

1tbsp of water 

salt
vanilla extract 

cinammon :)

Prepare the shortcrust dough

Make your shortcrust dough with unsalted butter and a pinch of salt

Add 1/2tbsp of vanilla extract stirred in 1/2tbsp of sugar in the water

Allumer le four à 200°C

Prepare the apple

Rinse and peel the apples, cut them in half and remove the seeds

- you can remove the seeds after cutting them if you prefer -

Depending on their size, cut these halves in 3 or 4 slices

- 1 apple is cut in 6 pieces or 8 if it's a big apple 

Pick a mold that goes on the stove and in the oven.
Place it on your stove at low heat, and melt the butter in it. Add the apple in and stir delicately
so they get fully covered of butter.

Leave them 3 to 5 minutes to get buttery and a bit yellowish and remove them from the mold,
they must not cook too much, they are still firm

- some butter is left in the mold, that's good -

Faire un caramel

Pour sugar in the buttered mold, add 1tbsp of water and 1pinch of salt
Put it on high/medium heat to make a caramel (toffee)

Stir with a wooden spoon so it won't burn

It must have a really dark caramel shade and be liquid
Turn off the fire, take the mold in hands > with gloves
and do a circular move so the caramel gets everywhere in the mold
By getting cooler, it gets harder and will stay in place

Place apples

When the caramel is still soft but sticky enough to stop moving,
place the apples as flower petals, close from each other,
press on the mold when placing them to get the caramel going in between.
Start by the outter circle with the biggest slices, then the inner circle.
You have extra apple left, use them in smal pieces to fill in the holes.

- about a half apple is enough -

Spread some cinnamon on the apple if you like it :)

Making the Tatin

Flatten your dough on a floured table, fold it delicately in half, then in 4. Carry it carefully on your apples, folds in the center. Unfold it to cover the pie.
Make the dough stick on the edges toward the apples. Don't use a fork to stab it.

Bake 40 minutes or so.

The dough must be real golden.

Turn out when tepid :)

- afer 15 minutes out of the oven -

Serve tepid with a vanilla ice cream or table cream !

My brother works on his exams, I am working on my basics recipes ;)

Fruit "crust", apple and rhubarb, apple and raspberrie !

I promessed I would post this one, took me a bit longer to to do it as I wanted :)

But at least you have many flavors :)

For 6 people

   You will need :   

For the crust

1.5 cup of flour (7oz / 200gr)

0.6 cup of brown sugar (5.3 oz / 150 gr)

3/4 cup of butter (3.5oz / 100gr / 7.5tbsp)

2tsp of honey

- or 2tsp of grounded cinnamon -

a hint of water

Rhubarb and apples

7oz. of peeled rhubarb

6 regular-sized apples

- I had braeburn -

Raspberries and apples

7oz of frozen raspberries

1.7 fl oz of water(1/5 cup / 5cL) d'eau

1 tsp of lemon juice

6 regular sized apples

- I had braeburn -

For the rhubarb, a few hours before :

Wash and peel the rhubarb, cut it in dice and put it in a bowl with 2tbsp of brown sugar, 

Stir it and set aside in the fridge

- this is how you remove water from the rhubarb -

After 2 hours, remove the water, blend it again and add more sugar if needed,

leave it one more hour in the fridge

For the raspberries :

Put the raspberries with the water in a caserole at low heat to unfreeze them,

 crush them with a wooden spoon to make a sauce

When they are soft and crushed, turn it off and add the lemon juice

Turn on the oven at 450°F

Wash and peel the apples, cut them in dice

Put in your glass-dish, or your ramequin one layer of apple

Spread some brown sugar on it,

\\ then you put the rhubarb if you've chosen that flavour //

Put another layer of apple

\\ pour the raspberrie sauce on the top if you've chosen that flavour //

Blend the flour and the sugar with the butter with your finger, just like to do a cookie dough

Add the honey and a hint of water to make a dough

Flatten it on a floured parchment paper to have 0.2 inch of thickness

Turn over on your fruits, cut the edges and make some holes with a fork

Put it in the oven for 5 minutes, then lower the heat at 360°F for 35 minutes

Turn off the oven and let it 5 more minutes

Let it cool down 10 minutes out of the oven, eat it warm :)