Apple Tart

I had never tasted an apple tart. Until yesterday! Yup. Always shied away from it and picked another dessert. It was instinctive. Nothing about an apple tart yells out to me and still all my friends and my family swear by it. They claim, you cannot go wrong with it. Its a safe dessert. And so, yesterday when I found my fruit basket dangerously over stuffed with apples, I thought it was perhaps time to tackle the apple tart monster! Grab it by its horns and devour it to submission. Well, atleast that was the plan but alas, its just not my monster. Know what I mean? I made the tart shell from scratch, lovingly made the fillings, waited to get it baked and the result..it was blah in my mouth. Don't get me wrong, apparently the dessert was delicious. It had to be cause my Mum who always says no to dessert went in for seconds and there is no more tart left but still to me it was blah.

I always feel that a good dessert has to overwhelm you. There should something about it that explodes in your mouth. It could be the flavours, its subtlety, a surprise element, anything but it has to impress you and that's where I felt my apple tart failed. Atleast to me. Well, no more apple tarts for me and like I said, I'll never get around this monster but thats just cause, this is just not my monster. Nonetheless, if you like apple tarts then here are the things you need,

For the shell,

• 250 grams of flour
• 125 grams of cold and cubed butter
• 1 tbsp of water
• a pinch of salt

For the filling,

• 3-4 large apples sliced along the length
• 25 grams of butter + 25 grams of sugar
• 250 mils of cream
• 100 grams of sugar (or more if you like it really sweet)
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Method:

1. Mix together the all the ingredients for the tart shell and press them together. Do not knead as it can make the shell a little tough. Press them well, between cling films and refrigerate for atleast 2 hours.
2. Then roll it out to desired thickness and line your tart tray with it. Trim of the excess from the edges.
3. Now, cut the apples lengthwise and line the prepared shell with it.
4. Mix together the butter and sugar and brush all over the apples well. Alternately, you could dip the apples in this mixture first and then line the tart tray with it.
5. Now in an oven preheated to 220 degree Celsius, bake the tart for 10 minutes.
6. Then reduce the temperature to 200 degree Celsius and bake for further 20 minutes.
7. In the meanwhile, whisk together the cream, sugar, egg and vanilla extract.
8. Once the tart has been baked for the required 20 minutes, remove from oven and pour the cream mix all over it until the apples are submerged in it.
9. Now return the tart to oven for another 10 more minutes.
10. Remove and serve while slightly warm.

Sorry about the really really bad photos. Lack of inspiration plus the lack of a good camera can do this to us! :(