Iconic of harvesttime, apples and their constituents have been shown to improve heart health, protect against atherosclerosis, asthma, and Alzheimer’s disease among other ailments.
This recipe for Tarte Aux Pommes is a delicious way to get your apple a day. It was sent to CCSA as part of a series of emails from our resident chef, Dr. Linda Doody. She started sharing her extensive collection of favorite recipes with friends, family, and the CCSA team as a means of maintaining connections during the COVID-19 pandemic.
For more on apples, see our previous post here.
“Life is uncertain. Eat dessert first”
– Ernestine Ulmer
Tarte Aux Pommes (Apple Tart)
La Technique, Jacques Pepin (1976) - Tarte Aux Pommes
Julia Child’s Kitchen, Julia Child (1975) - Patė Brisėe Fine
Ingredients
- Tarte Aux Pommes
- 1 Paté brisée (see recipe instructions below)
- 4 to 5 apples (Golden Delicious works well since it is a firm apple that holds its shape. Granny Smith apples can be substituted, if desired)
- 3 Tbsp sugar
- 2 Tbsp unsalted butter
- Apricot jam
- Calvados, cognac, or brandy (optional)
- Patė Brisėe Fine
- 1¾ cups (8 ounces) all-purpose flour, preferably unbleached (according to Julia, measure by scooping dry-measure cups into the flour and sweeping off the excess)
- 1 tsp salt
- 1¼ sticks (5 oz) chilled unsalted butter (you can freeze both the butter and shortening prior to making the dough)
- 2 Tbsp (1 oz) chilled shortening (this serves to tenderize American flour)
- ⅓ to ½ cup ice water
Instructions
- Tarte Aux Pommes
- Preheat oven to 400°F. Make the pie dough, roll out, and fit it into a 9-inch flan ring or tart pan. (Note: If using a 12-inch removable-bottom, fluted tart pan, the number of apples should be increased to 6–8 to compensate for the larger size.)
- Trim the stem and flower ends of the apples. Holding a paring knife by the blade, use only the point of the knife and your thumb as a pivot to cut the stem out. Using a vegetable peeler or sharp paring knife, peel the apples. Cut apples into halves through the stem and remove the seeds with the point of the knife (or an apple corer). Cut each half into ¼-inch slices, keeping the slices together. Reserve the uniform center slices. Chop the end slices coarsely.
- Spread the chopped apples evenly over the bottom of the pie shell. Fan out the center slices as you would a deck of cards and arrange in a continuous row around the circumference of the pan (reserving the smaller slices) on top of the chopped apples. Arrange apples slices in the center of the shell to simulate the petals of a rose (incorporating the smaller slices).
- Sprinkle the apples with sugar and cut pieces of butter. Bake for approximately 75 minutes. The apples should be browned and the crust golden. Remove the flan ring or the outside ring of the tart pan. Strain the apricot jam through a fine sieve and dilute slightly with calvados, brandy, cognac, or water. Heat slightly, then glaze the apple slices. Serve at room temperature.
- Patė Brisėe Fine
- Place flour and salt in food processor bowl with plastic or metal blade. Rapidly cut chilled butter and shortening into ¼-inch pieces and drop into flour. Process for ~3 seconds to mix the flour and butter until the butter is reduced to tiny bits less than ⅟16 inch in size and each bit is coated with flour; this creates the flakiness in pastry. Be very careful not to overmix and soften the butter, turning things into paste—it should be light and dry. Pour in ⅓ cup of the ice water through the feed tube and process ~3 seconds, until dough has just begun to mass on the blade. Scrape out of the bowl onto a working surface and add more water by droplets to unblended bits if pastry seems dry; it should be malleable, but not damp and sticky. Gather the dough into a ball, pressing it firmly into a thick cake 4 to 5 inches in diameter. Flour lightly, wrap in a sheet of plastic and a plastic bag, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours to give flour time to absorb liquid, to relax the gluten so the dough will roll easily, and to chill the butter for easy rolling.
Notes
This distinctly French open-faced tart is a traditional dessert at family Thanksgiving dinners. It can be served with vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, or poured heavy cream, if desired.
This cookbook, which was subsequently updated as New Techniques (2012), has step-by-step photographs and clear text that provide a guide to the fundamentals of cooking.
The Patė Brisėe Fine is an all-purpose, quality French pastry dough for pie crusts, tarte shells, quiches, turnovers, and appetizers—easily made in the food processor.
Dough will keep for 2–3 days under refrigeration, but if you have used unbleached flour, it will gradually turn grayish; you can still use the dough if the color is not pronounced. For longer storage, freeze the dough, which will keep it perfectly