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2013 Cooking Club Week 11: Apple Tart
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21-03-2013 11:01pm#1I know this is 2 fruit-based desserts in a row, but I'd all the photos taken before last week's recipe went up so no way was I changing!
This recipe is really simple, I'm pretty sure it's from the All in the Cooking book that was the bible for most Irish kitchens in the 70s/80s and that my mam still has. This is probably the first thing I learned how to make. There's always apple tart at home, it's lovely and comforting on cold horrible winter nights (like tonight) and good cold as part of a picnic in the summer. I used to bring a slice as part of my school lunch too and it's a nice one to have if there's a crowd in the house, most people like apple tart. Anyway, on to the recipe.
Ingredients (makes 2):
1lb/450g flour
8oz/225g margarine
4 large cooking apples
caster sugar
approx. 200ml cold water
cinnamon/cloves/mixed spice (optional)
Equipment:
2 dinner plates
Mixing bowl
Knife/Vegetable peeler
Grater
Rolling pin
Scales
Method:
Preheat your oven to 200 C, 180 C for a fan oven.
Mix the flour and margarine with your fingertips until you get the consistency of breadcrumbs. General rule is your palms should be clean all the time.
Make a well in the centre of the bowl and pour in the water a little at a time. Mix this by moving your hand in increasing circles and pulling in the flour mixture as you go.
(I don't know why it's coming out so grey and yellow, it was a uniform yellowy colour I swear!)
Don't worry if you put in slightly too much water (I did), just add more flour and it'll come together. Knead it briefly into a ball, and turn it out onto a floured worktop. (You can put it in the fridge for a while now if you want, but I never bother.) Cut into quarters, put three of them back in your mixing bowl and roll out the fourth. I hope for your sake you've a bigger worktop than mine, rolling this out was not easy! Roll it out until it's bigger than your plate.
Grease your dinner plates with a little bit of butter or margarine. Transfer the rolled-out pastry to the first plate by folding it up, lifting it onto the plate and unfolding it. It's much easier than lifting the pastry straight up and unlikely to tear it.
Trim around the edges of the plate with a sharp knife and throw the scraps of pastry into your mixing bowl to be kneaded with the next quarter (or give it to your kids to make shapes for the top of the apple tart, we started off doing that before being allowed onto the serious jobs like sprinkling sugar...)
When you have two plates lined with pastry, move onto the apples. I had slightly too many, four big cooking apples would be perfect here, six medium ones were a teeny bit too much. Depends on how you like the fruit:pastry ratio. Peel them, then grate them. It's faster than chopping them finely or chopping them then stewing them, unless you like chunky apple tart, in which case chop away! If you grate them, a lot of juice will come out in the bowl. Squeeze the juice out of each handful of apple as you put it onto the pastry, otherwise it'll make your pastry soggy and horrible. Don't go overboard drying it or anything, you need a bit of juice, but the apple will get a bit liquidy anyway as it cooks.
So from this...
you get this...
then throw half of it on top of this...
and get this! Which I know does not look pretty. The apples will go brown really quickly when grated, don't worry about it, they're going to be covered anyway.
Add about 4 big spoons of sugar or sweetener on top of this (you can use eating apples instead of cooking apples if you want, and then omit the sugar, but don't leave it out if you're using cooking apples, you will regret it). Add a shake or two of mixed spice or cinnamon at this point too if you want to. I forgot, and had to go back after putting on the lids and open them up to add it. Don't do that. Putting it back together was not fun.
Then repeat what you did for the bases with the lids - you might have to roll them a bit thinner as they have to cover a bigger area. Press the edges together very lightly and make inch-long cuts around the lid. These are just to make it look pretty, but are also a good guide for cutting slices later. Poke a few holes in the top with a fork - don't press this too deep or it will make a hole in the base, and the apples will leak through and stick to the plate. Put on any pastry shapes that may have been made now (I was boring and have none) and brush the top with a little bit of milk or egg - I'd often make scones and apple tart at the same time so would use the egg mix from the scones, but milk did the job here.
I'd stick cloves through the top at this point too, and take them out just before eating it, but my housemate hates them so not this time.
Bake for half an hour, or until the top is golden.
Leave to cool for a few minutes, boil the kettle while you're waiting, then enjoy your apple tart and a cup of tea! (There was supposed to be cream with it, but the cream didn't quite make it.)
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Comments
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Loving it was only thinking today was a day for apple tart can I ask you does it matter what type of flour to use I only have self raising in press . Can't wait for later today
Nope I use whatever I have! I think it makes very little difference anyway because you roll it out so flat that there's no air in it to help it rise. And if it does it won't rise much.
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That's exactly how I make my apple tarts except I slice my apples.
You've reminded me to make a couple at the weekend - you can't beat a nice apple tart. I like mine heated with cold custard poured over 0 -
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Looks like the same recipe my Mam uses, except that she used to make a kinda purée out of the cooking apples and then add that to the bases. My grandmother had an old apple tree in her garden that grew the perfect cooking apples. Beautiful still warm with icecream. Ah the memories.
Also used to be super impressed with my Mam's knife skills as she turned the plate in one had and cut the excess pastry away. And peeling the apples in one continuous piece!
Have to try this for old times sake.0 -
Looks like the same recipe my Mam uses, except that she used to make a kinda purée out of the cooking apples and then add that to the bases. My grandmother had an old apple tree in her garden that grew the perfect cooking apples. Beautiful still warm with icecream. Ah the memories.
Also used to be super impressed with my Mam's knife skills as she turned the plate in one had and cut the excess pastry away. And peeling the apples in one continuous piece!
Have to try this for old times sake.
Yeah I do that with the plate too but unfortunately couldn't show off my mad skillz because there was nobody else to take a photo!
The puree would probably be a better flavour as you'd keep the juice, but takes that bit longer and I hate having to cook stuff before baking it.0 -
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Can't put up photos at the moment but golly were they super easy and yum or what! I've only ever done deep dish apple pie (hence my earlier doubt on the ability to cook them on a dinner plate).
The pastry was fail-proof, which was a plus plus plus for a pastry bum like me. Folding the pastry instead of trying to roll them on a rolling pin when transferring to the plate was an A1 tip. I used two giant cooking apples, despite the advice to leave the sugar out I did add 2 tbsp anyway.
Thanks for the recipe OP.
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confusticated wrote: »So glad you liked it and that your plate survived!
Edit: Also, just in case anyone else reads that, the advice is DON'T leave the sugar out! Cooking apples really need some, eating apples would be okay without.
WHOOPS! I read it wrong then, thank heavens I added them in the end.
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Loved the recipe so diversified a little today same pastry recipe but with cheese and onion filling.....so cheese and onion pie today....I know I know....get your own thread... but thanks again to OP. I have pics but I'll be thrown outta here.;).
Any chance of you putting up the filling recipe & photo of the pie up on random recipe thread? Sounds divine 0 -
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