Apple pies, tarts and crumbles are always a welcome sight at the end of a meal, but this version of a French apple tart elevates a classic dessert to be something truly memorable.
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A couple of years ago, I was welcomed into a new group of friends who meet every Tuesday for dinner around one of the member’s houses.
More often than not, dinner takes the shape of a barbecue, though before you start picturing cheap sausages and blackened burgers, these guys take their food pretty seriously.
Things start off with a cheese platter, perhaps an artisanal saucisson or salumi, maybe a dip or two that someone has brought.
Next, someone might have fetched some lamb cutlets or maybe some locally-sourced sausage, grilled then sliced for everyone to pick over.
The main event is often a picañha or rump cap cut, sometimes reverse seared to encourage the sought-after Maillard reaction, which is the caramelisation of proteins that bring umami to the meat. The cut is then sliced delicately for everyone to take what they want.
Someone produces a salad and we dine grandly on Italian wines or local beers. Perhaps a touch of port or limoncello at the end.
It’s by no means you common or garden barbecue… though the barbecue is in a garden somewhere. You know what I mean.
The only thing that was missing was a sweet to match. So I’ve somehow become ‘dessert guy’.
I mostly deal in apple-based desserts, though I have dabbled in the likes of this olive oil citrus cake and this cashew caramel chocolate tart. So far, the most successful apple dessert has been this apple tart a la Alsacienne.
How to Make Apple Tart a la Alsacienne
Serves 8-10
Here’s what you need:
– 2x sheets of frozen shortcrust pastry (though I have used puff before and it works)
For the custard
– 2x eggs
– 5g cornflour
– 40g plain flour
– 50g caster sugar
– 220ml full-fat milk
– 45ml thickened cream
– 2tsp vanilla extract
For the apples
– 600g green apples (granny smiths work well)
– 1tbsp lemon juice
– 1tsp cinnamon
– 40g caster sugar
For the glaze
– 2-3 tbsp orange marmalade
– 1-2tbsp hot water
Here’s what you do:
1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC (fan forced) and blind bake the pastry using rice or baking balls* in a scalloped pie tin for 15min. You can bring it out of the oven and leave it to one side when it’s done.
2. Turn the oven down to 160ºC.
3. In the meantime, mix the eggs, flour and sugar in a large mixing bowl until smooth.
4. In a pan, heat the milk until it’s nearly boiling then pour it into the egg, flour and sugar mix. Stir constantly as you pour to keep the mixture free from lumps.
5. Pour the mixture back into the pan and heat on medium until the mixture thickens. Stir constantly to avoid catching on the base of the pan. Once the custard is thick, remove from the heat, add the vanilla and stir thoroughly. Leave the custard to cool.
6. Peel, core and slice the apples into thin wedges no more than 4mm at the thickest point. Add them to a large bowl and mix with the lemon juice, cinnamon and sugar until the apple slices are coated.
7. When the custard is near enough room temperature (you don’t have to be too fussy), pour into the pie case and level out with a spatula.
8. Position the apple slices on the surface of the custard any way you like. This can be a bit fiddly, so enjoy the mindfulness of this step and find your zen while you apple the custard!
Any liquid left in the apple bowl is yours to play with. Don’t add this to the tart.
9. Bake at 160ºC for 40-45min until the custard is firm and the apples are catching some colour.
10. Once out of the oven, glaze the tart by brushing with the marmalade and hot water mixture (remove any orange pieces if you like) and allow to cool. Soon it’ll be time to eat!
* I like to line the pastry with baking paper then with foil before adding the baking balls. This keeps the pastry nice and neat.
This recipe is based on the ‘tarte Alsacienne aux pommes’, which has the apple at the bottom and the custard poured on top, but I like the visual effect of the apples on top.
Serve With This Vanilla Ice Cream
For the ice cream, I used my beautiful new Tefal Dolci Black Knight. This amazing piece of tech makes ice cream and gelato at the touch of a button, but also has eight other functions, from frappes to sorbets to frozen cocktails to milkshakes. It’s brilliant — you can find it here in our Hint Magazine gift guide.
You simply bring 200ml of milk and 200ml of cream, 50g caster sugar and 8g of cornflour to the boil in a saucepan — whisking as it heats and thickens.
Stir in 2tsp of vanilla essence, pour it into one of the Dolci pots and freeze.
Once frozen, the pot goes into the Tefal Dolci machine, you press the ‘gelato’ button and within four minutes, you have the most delicious vanilla ice cream you’ve ever eaten.
The machine works not by churning the mixture for hours and hours like conventional ice cream makers, but by chamfering layers of the frozen mixture away with angled blades and then churning it until creamy.
It also does a whole range of other frozen goodies from sorbets to cocktails to fro-yo. Very impressed.
This is an ice cream making system that’s usually only found in commercial kitchens We first saw a machine like this at a demonstration for commercial kitchens about 23 years ago. A company called Pacojet makes machines that run like this but can cost six times as much as the Tefal Dolci. They’re also much bigger, they don’t have as many programmes and don’t look anywhere near as sleek!
