French Apple Tart with Crème Anglaise

In our local village of Pernes-les-Fontaines there is a large food and brocante marchè (trash and treasure market) every Saturday morning but they also have a mid week night market every mercredi soir (Wednesday night). This week we raced home from a touristy day out in Nîmes to get home in time for it to start at 6pm. 

It was very different to the Saturday morning market, maybe 20 cars or vans had pulled up in the parking lot and opened their tailgates to sell the freshest produce you could possibly see. There wasn't a huge amount on offer, but what was there had literally been picked from their gardens that day. There was cheeses, breads, saucisson, lots of delicious strawberries, beautiful apples and loads of white asparagus. My next couple of blog posts will include what I did with the wonderful produce that I bought there!

Apples. 
They were not your supermarket shiny and perfectly sized apples. 
They still had leaves on them from the trees that they had been plucked from. 
Some had a few blemishes, as nature intended. 
On the whole they were absolutely perfect in every way as nature intended

So to make a traditional classic - 

 Pomme Tarte (Apple Tart) with Crème Anglaise

The kitchen in the house that we are renting here in Provence is quite well equipped. I have gone out and bought a couple of essentials like some scales and cup measures (Meryl - I will leave them at your Belves property when I return home to Australia for the next person to use!) but generally I will improvise as you will see in this post. I found a little flan dish, which was big enough to feed the four of us for dessert but this recipe makes enough to make a 20cm tart - feeds 6-8.

FRENCH APPLE TART

Ingredients:

Pastry
113g unsalted butter (softened)
50g caster sugar
1 egg (at room temperature)
195g plain flour
pinch salt

Apple Filling
6 apples
40g butter
100g caster sugar
zest from one lemon
ground cinnamon

Glaze
Apricot jam

Method:

Pastry

1. Beat butter till light and fluffy
2. Add sugar and continue to beat until pale and the sugar has dissolved
3. Add in the egg and beat until combined
4. Add flour and salt, mix until just combined - do not over mix. Mould into a ball then flatten into a disc. Cover in cling film and refrigerate for about an hour till chilled through. Whilst chilling, make the apple mixture.

 Apple Filling

1. Peel, core and finely slice apples
2. Melt butter in a large pot, add sugar, lemon zest and cinnamon 
3. Add apples - stir to coat making sure the sugar mixture doesn't catch on the bottom. Cook for about ten minutes or until the apples just begin to soften
4. Remove half of the apples and set aside to cool - these will be the apples that you use to place on the top of the tart
5. Return the remainder of the apples to the heat and continue to cook until they are all soft and squishy - you may need to add some water if this mixture gets too dry - it depends on the apples that you use as to how much water you will require. You don't want the mixture to be dry, but you also don't want it to be too wet. When this apple mixture has collapsed you can remove it form the heat - this will take about half an hour. 

Back to the pastry

1. Remove the pastry form the fridge and roll it out with a rolling pin (or a bottle of wine - whatever you have on hand!)until it is about 5mm thick
2. Gently ease the pastry into the flan tin, ensuring that you have covered the base and sides - remove any excess pastry from the top edge and prick the base of the pastry with a fork all over
3. Cover this with cling film again and return to fridge to chill for about 20 mins. Whilst chilling, make the creme anglaise 

CRÈME ANGLAISE

Ingredients:

6 eggs yolks(at room temperature)

65g caster sugar

2 vanilla beans (seeds removed)

500ml milk

Method:

1. Beat egg yolks and sugar together until light and fluffy
2. Add vanilla bean seeds and vanilla bean pods to the milk in a saucepan - bring nearly to the boil and then simmer gently for about 5 mins - allow to cool for a couple of minutes
3. Slowly add milk mixture (minus the vanilla pods) into the egg yolk and sugar mixture, beating constantly so as not to cook the egg yolks
4. Beat until mixture is all combined and then pour back into saucepan and return to a gently heat
5. Stirring constantly over a low heat until the mixture slightly thickens and it coats the back of the spoon - takes about 10 minutes - then pour into a jug and place in fridge till you are ready to use

Back to the Apple Tart....

The final stages...

1. Once the pastry has rested again in the fridge for about 20 minutes, it is time to blind bake the shell - this means simply to line it with baking paper, cover the base of the baking paper with rice and bake in the oven - bake at 205 degrees for 15-20 minutes, keep an eye that the edges do not begin to get too brown
2. Once the 20 minutes is up, remove the rice and the baking paper and fill the tart with the mashed apple evenly
3. The next step is all about the presentation, carefully lay out the apple slices that are just tender in a circular pattern over the top of the mashed apple
4. Bake in oven for a further 20 minutes
5. Remove from oven and whilst still hot, heat the apricot jam with a couple of tablespoons of water to make a glaze, brush this over the top of the pie and it is ready to serve!

Serve with Crème Anglaise (and Vanilla Bean ice cream!)

Enjoy!

xo