I've been planning to remake this Dutch apple tart for some time. I went over to my friend's place for dinner last weekend and as it's my custom to bring dessert, I dusted off my cute little spring form tin and set to work. I had to scale back the recipe a little to fit the tin and made a few changes to the original recipe which I thought would improve the finished product.
I've bought a few new styling props the past month or so. Can you spot my new finds?
I almost had a disaster on my way to dinner. I had to take evasive action to avoid a collision resulting in a slightly squashed tart. We managed to find a piece that was undamaged for me to photograph and the rest was eaten.
The tart does take some time to put together. I made the pastry on Saturday night and put the tart together early on Sunday morning so the tart had time to cool before our trip across the Harbour Bridge.
Here's the recipe for you which I adapted from here.
Dutch Apple Tart (makes one 23 cm/9 inch tart)
Pastry
1 cup plain flour and 1 cup self raising flour, sifted together
180 g (6½ oz) unsalted butter
¼ cup brown sugar
¼ cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 egg, beaten
Few tablespoons milk
Extra sugar
Filling
8 large green apples, peeled, cored and coarsely chopped
50 g sultanas (golden raisins)
⅓ - ½ cup caster sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon (or more to taste)
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
One 20 ml tablespoon lemon juice (or more to taste)
Three 20 ml tablespoons custard powder
Pastry
In a food processor combine the flours and the sugars.
Add the butter and process until the mixture forms breadcrumbs
Add 3/4 of the egg to the flour mixture and reserve the rest.
Add the vanilla extract and a few tablespoons of milk if needed and process until a soft dough forms around the blades.
Remove the dough from the processor, knead lightly to form a ball, flatten it out slightly before wrapping the dough in plastic and placing in the fridge for 1 hour.
Filling
In a large bowl, combine the apples, the sultanas, the sugar, the spices, the lemon juice and 1 tablespoon of the custard powder. If the apples are very tart, you may need to add a little more sugar. Mix well and allow the flavors to blend, stirring occasionally. Set to one side while lining the tin.
Method
Butter a 9-inch round spring form cake pan and line the base with baking paper. Roll out ¾ of the pastry and line the base and sides of the tin with the pastry.
Spoon 1 tablespoon of the custard powder over the pastry base. Gently spoon in half the apple filling, leaving the juices behind. Sprinkle the remaining custard powder over the apples before adding the rest of the filling.
On a lightly floured surface, roll out the remaining dough. Cut the dough into 1 cm strips and layer them over the apple pie to form a lattice. Brush the remaining egg over the lattice then sprinkle the top of the tart with a little extra sugar.
Bake the tart at 180°C / 350°F on the middle shelf, for about 1 hour 15 minutes. I covered the top of the tart after 30 minutes to prevent it over browning. The apples were still a little uncooked so I left the tart in the switched off oven for a further 30 minutes.
Allow the tart to cool completely before unmoulding from the tin. Serve with cream or ice cream or both. I had a small piece of the apple tart last night and it was scrumptious.
If you have any leftover dough, you can roll the dough out, cut into strips and brush the cookies with any leftover egg, then sprinkle with sugar and bake the cookies for about 10 minutes while the tart is in the oven. When they came out of the oven, they tasted just like the biscuits my Grandmother used to make.
I'll be back again later this week with my last travel post from Tasmania.
See you all again soon,
Jillian
