Happy Thanksgiving to each and every one of you!  Thank you for taking the time to read; I appreciate it.  This isn’t very Thanksgiving-y but still pretty tasty.  So, while you recover from your food coma, consider this for one of your upcoming holiday parties or just simply as a special treat!

So, a while ago I promised I would post a recipe for a classic French apple tart and I used a recipe from the text book from the International Culinary Center, the school I attended.  Besides old fashioned procrastination with this post, I have run into a bit of a problem.  That is to say that I thought the book with the recipe was available for public purchase.  However, after an initial search on the school’s website, I’m not so sure that’s the case.  As such, I don’t feel comfortable posting the exact recipe as I can’t credit it back to something you, the reader, can reference and I definitely don’t feel comfortable posting the exact recipe without permission.  So, I decided on a happy medium that I hope can work.  I’m going to walk through the various stages of making a tart and how to assemble it.  I’ll provide a link or two for a good tart dough recipe that would work in lieu of the exact one I used to make mine.  Anyway, let’s try it that way.

Tarts are pretty easy to pull off, but they do take some time.  Like making pie, how much you handle the dough and giving it incremental rests will result in a flakier, better textured crust.  For mine, I used a classic tart recipe and made a pretty straightforward compote as the base.  The sliced apples used for the topping retained their skin for extra color.  I prefer it that way and like the way it looks.  However, that is very much a no-no for a traditional French tart.  You’ll notice from the pictures that the sliced apples are arranged very neatly around the tart and make for a very beautiful finished product.  You’ll also notice that mine is slightly uneven and not the greatest looking from a presentation standpoint…story of my life with baking.  I lose patience with the precision of it and find myself hurrying…go slowly and have patience with it.  If not, hey, the imperfections make it look homemade and there’s nothing wrong with that!  The recipe follows after the jump…

Ingredients:

4-5 Pounds granny smith apples

3-4 Pounds assorted mixed colored apples (go for both sweet and tart if you can)

1 Recipe for Pate Sucree (tart dough that is slightly sweet)

½ Cup sugar plus more to taste

2-3 Lemons

Fine sea salt to taste

2 Tablespoons apricot jam thinned with 2 Tablespoons of water

Instructions:

• Make the recipe for the Pate Sucree. Place dough round in refrigerator for at least 30 minutes up to an hour.
• Peel the granny smith apples, rubbing the apples on all sides with lemon juice to preserve color. Cut the apples into ½ inch chunks and place in medium sauce pan.  Place pan with apples over medium low heat.  Add juice of one lemon and a pinch of fine sea salt.  Add 1 to2 Tablespoons of sugar.
• Reduce heat to low and cover. Allow mixture to cook 5-10 minutes, checking every so often to stir and ensure that the mixture isn’t burning.  The apples will slowly dissolve.  Once the apples look like a chunky applesauce, they are done.  Remove from heat and place compote in bowl to cool.  Taste and adjust seasoning.  I prefer the compote on the tart side, but if you like it a bit sweeter, add a touch more sugar.  Though, keep in mind that the tart dough contains sugar as well.
• Once the apple compote is cooled, take the pate sucree out of the refrigerator and roll with a rolling pin on a very clean and cool surface. Roll the tart out to a 1/8 inch thickness.  Then take the dough and carefully drape it over the rolling pin.
• Once the tart dough is draped on the rolling pin, carefully place the tart dough over the tart pan allowing an inch or so of give in the middle of the tart. Carefully form the tart into the tart pan mold and mold the seams and corners into the pan.
• Once done, roll the rolling pin over the top of the tart pan, thereby cutting away the excess tart dough from the pan.
• Place the tart pan in the refrigerator for 10-20 minutes.
• In the meantime, take the remaining apples and cut them thinly (about 1/8 inch) into slices. Pour some lemon juice over the slices as you go to preserve the color of the apples.
• Bring the tart pan back out. Take the apple compote and spread it evenly over the tart.
• Take the apple slices, and arrange in two circles, starting at the outer most edge of the crust and working inward. Slightly overlap each apple slice, as pictured.
• Bake the tart at 375 degrees for about 30 minutes. Check the tart.  It likely will need more time but look for overly browning of the crust or topping.  If overly browned, reduce heat to 350 and cover.  Either way, cook another 15 minutes or so.
• Check the tart again and once the apples looked browned and the crust a golden brown, remove tart from oven and allow to cool for 20 minutes.
• Remove the tart from the tart pan and place on rack to cool completely.
• While cooling on the rack, take the apricot jam and water and place in small sauce pan. Gently heat the mixture, whisking until well incorporated and slightly thickened.
• Take the apricot mix and gently brush over the top of the tart (the apples will move around if you aren’t careful so go slowly and gently).
• Allow glaze to cool and solidify.

Serve room temperature or warmed on its own or with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.