Easy French Apple Tart
Ingredients
- 1 x recipe pie/pate brisee dough for tart dough
- 7-8 medium to large-sized baking apples I used Gala and Granny Smith, but any good baking apple will do
Apple Topping:
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- pinch of salt
- ¼ cup unsalted butter cut into little pieces
Apricot Topping:
- ¼ cup apricot preserves
- 1 tablespoon water
- ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
- 3 cups of apple juice or 3 cups of water with 2 tablespoons lemon juice
Instructions
- Prep your baking tray with parchment paper and grease it with cooking spray. Set it aside.
- Cut the butter into pieces and set aside.
- Make the pie dough (pate brisee) and let it rest in the fridge for two hours.
- After two hours, begin to roll out the dough into the sheet tray. Use a small rolling pin and your hands to roll out as thinly and evenly as possible. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 30 minutes.
- While the dough is in the fridge, combine the topping ingredients and mix until combined. Be sure to break up the lumps. Set aside.
- Prep the apples by peeling the apple, cut around the core, cutting into thin slices so you get a "fan" or "shingle" shape. After you cut an apple, place the pieces into the bowl of water/lemon solution or apple juice. Continue to cut the apples and set aside.
- Take the dough out of the fridge. Begin to dock the dough with a fork by poking holes all over the top of the dough.
- Drain the apples from the juice or water and pat dry with a paper towel.
- Shingle the apples tightly across the top of the dough. The ends will be very small, you don't have to use them. Also depending on the variety, the shape will be different for the apples. That's not a problem.
- Sprinkle the sugar topping over the top of the apples evenly.
- Dot the top with the butter pieces.
- Bake at 400°F for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until the apples and dough are golden brown. Rotate the pan halfway through baking.The edge may burn, but that's not a big deal. You can also double the dough, topping and apple recipe to make a full sheet tray worth of apple tart. That may prevent the edge from burning. Either way, you can cut off any burnt edges.
- When the tart is almost done, prepare the apricot topping by warming up the apricot for about 45 seconds in the microwave and mix in the cinnamon and water.
- Take the tart out of the oven and immediately brush on the warm apricot topping over the top.
- Serve warm plain, with powdered sugar, ice cream or whipped cream!
Video
Notes
You can use any good baking apples If you don't have apricot, you can use any preserves as long as it's not very overpowering. Double the dough, topping and apple recipe for a full sheet of apple tart. Serve warm! Rotate the pan half way through while baking. If it puffs up too much in one spot, use a paring knife to let the steam out.