French Apple Tart

If you told me twenty years ago, when I first started cooking, that one day I would be able to spontaneously whip up a French apple tart, I would have balked. “What am I? A French grandmother?” But that was before I knew how to pinch together a pie dough in a matter of minutes, how to peel and slice apples quicker than a Top Chef contestant, and how to have everything cleaned up and put away more efficiently than Mary Poppins.

And so it was that last night, after a dinner of leftovers (“sad!” Trump just Tweeted in my head) I felt the need for something warm, something cozy, something a little bit delectable and a little bit practical. Then I saw these apples on the counter.

Now there are two kinds of French apple tarts: the kind that you bake in a tart pan (no, merci) and the kind that you make free-form on the counter. I opted for option two, starting my usual pie dough by pinching together a stick of butter, 1 1/4 cups flour, 1/2 tablespoon of sugar, and 1/2 a teaspoon of salt.

Doing this by hand, rather than in a food processor, is the result of years of experience… maybe I am a French grandmother? I just like the tactical experience of pinching the butter in, waiting for the mixture to look like wet sand, with some clusters of peas. Then I add ice water, mix it all around, knead it a few times on the counter, collect it into a ball, and flatten into a disc which I wrap and refrigerate (for 30 minutes here) before rolling out.

As for the apples, when I wrote my cookbook I was lucky enough to learn from Sara Moulton how to slice apples for an apple tart. And though I think I may have gone in the wrong direction here, the idea is that you make 1/4-inch cuts, keeping the apple intact as you do, so you can fan it out like a deck of cards.

Once you roll out the dough, you sprinkle it with flour and sugar (per Jacques Pepin’s recipe) and then top with the apples.

Then it’s just a matter of folding in the outsides, brushing with butter, and sprinkling the apples with more sugar.

Into a 400 degree oven it goes for an hour and when it comes out an hour later, it’s a wonder to behold.

The hardest part is letting it cool before you slice it like a pizza and serve with vanilla ice cream. Who knew something so extraordinary could be made so quickly? Well the French knew it. And know you know it too.

French Apple Tart

A mix of my favorite pie dough recipe with Jacques Pepin’s technique

Makes one large, 12-inch apple art

Ingredients:

For the pie dough:

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tablespoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 stick of cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes

1/4 cup ice water, plus more if necessary

For the apple tart:

3 1/2 tablespoons sugar, divided

1 tablespoon flour

4 apples (I like a variety of baking apples), peeled, cored, sliced thinly into 1/4-inch pieces

2 tablespoons melted butter

2 tablespoons apricot preserves, melted and strained (optional)

Vanilla ice cream (optional)

Instructions:

1. First, make the pie dough. In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients, add the cold butter, and pinch for a good minute or two until the mixture looks like wet sand with pea-sized pieces. Add half of the water, toss together loosely with your hands, and try to grab a clump. If it holds together, that’s enough water. If not, add more. When it clumps together, dump on to a floured board, knead it a few times just until it comes together, and then collect it into a disc. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

2. Heat the oven to 400 degrees.

3. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. On a floured surface, roll out your dough so that it stretches into a 16-inch round about 1/4-inch thick. Use the rolling pin to transfer it to the cookie sheet.

4. Mix together 2 tablespoons of sugar with the 1 tablespoon of flour and sprinkle all over the center of the dough. Lay your apples inside, either piecing together concentric circles, or laying your rows like in the pictures above, leaving 3 inches on all sides.

5. Fold the dough over the apples in a free-form fashion, making sure not to cover too much. Brush the apples with the melted butter, sprinkle with the remaining sugar, and bake in the oven for an hour. The tart is done when the dough is deep golden brown, the apples are brown in spots, and the liquid is bubbling slightly. If you want, you can brush the apples with the apricot glaze for a shinier look. Allow to cool and serve with vanilla ice cream.