52. Caramel Apple Tart

So my friend Catherine came to visit this weekend to see Waitress starring Sara Bareilles, the writer of the show! It was amazing and wonderful and everything you could possibly want out of a musical about BAKING. So a weekend with a musical about my favourite thing with my favourite people, what else could possibly make this weekend better? MORE BAKING!!!

As Catherine has given up chocolate for lent, that was off the table, so caramel apple tart it was and oh boy was it GOOD.

Makes 1 tart

Ingredients

For the pastry

• 110g (4oz) butter, room temperature

• 50g (20z) caster sugar

• 1 egg

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• 1 pinch of salt

• 180g (6oz) plain flour

For the caramel

• 75g (3oz) butter

• 75g (3oz) light brown sugar

• 1 397g can of condensed milk

For the apple filling

• 3 medium sized apples (Braeburns work really well)

• 50g (2oz) caster sugar

• 2 tbsp plain flour

• Some extra brown sugar for sprinkling

Method

1. Beat the pastry sugar and butter together until creamy. Add in the vanilla extract and the eggs and beat until smooth.

2. Fold in the flour and salt until a dough forms.

3. Chill your dough in the fridge, wrapped in clingfilm for at least 15 minutes to make it easier to work with.

4. In a small pan melt the caramel butter and sugar on a low heat until the sugar is fully dissolved.

5. Add in the tin of condensed milk and bring up to a rapid boil, stirring all the time, until it is a lovely caramel colour. Boil for at least a minute.

6. Peel and core your apples. Then slice them into very thin slices, as thin as possible. Place them in a bowl with the apple filling sugar and flour and toss.

7. Preheat the oven to 175C and lightly grease your pie/tart tin. Mine is 23cm diameter.

8. On a lightly floured surface roll out your dough into a rough circle about 1/6” thick. Use this to line your tart tin. Trim the excess dough off, and press the dough into the sides, making sure it is fully pressed into the tin. Trim again if necessary.

9. Spread the caramel sauce over the bottom of the tart, you may not need all of it.

10. Layer up the apple pieces in any design you like, then add on some extra bits of leftover pastry in any decorative way you like, I just made some balls. Sprinkle over the extra sugar.

11. Bake for 40-45 minutes until golden. Allow to cool for 5-10 minutes before serving warm, or allow to cool completely and store in an airtight container.

18. Cinnamon Apple Pie

Autumn is well and truly here. It’s rainy and windy and that awkward temperature where you need a jacket most of the time, but if you have to walk any distance you are going to get just that little too warm, but not warm enough to take the jacket off, but warm enough that when you finally get to where you’re going you suddenly notice that you’ve got a bit sweaty and maybe you should just keep the jacket on to hide that, but that’ll just make you more sweaty, oh no what have you done… just me?

Anyway, autumn means that the apple trees in my Great Aunt’s garden are ready for harvesting and honestly? They can be pretty damn tasty. With my shopping bag full of her apples, I decided there was nothing more autumnal than an apple pie with cinnamon. So I made one.

This may seem a very normal thing to do, but growing up I was not a baked fruit fan (apart from bananas, but that’s different). I found them mushy and the texture was just so wrong. Turns out, that if I’ve made it and can control how soft the fruit gets, I am A ok with apple pie, with or without custard. I hope you enjoy this as much as I did! I have about half of it left, so I’m taking it down to my rugby match today. I somehow doubt it’ll go to waste.

Make one pie, serves about 12.

Ingredients

Pastry

• 360g (12.5oz) plain flour

• pinch of salt

• 1 tbsp ground cinnamon

• 100g (3.5oz) golden caster sugar

• 225g (8oz) butter, room temperature

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• 2 large eggs

Filling

• 4 or 5 medium sized apples

• 100g (3.5oz) caster sugar

• 1 tsp cinnamon

• 3 tbsp plain flour

Method

1. Beat the pastry sugar and butter together until creamy. Add in the vanilla extract and the eggs and beat until smooth.

2. Fold in the flour, cinnamon and salt until a dough forms.

3. Chill your dough in the fridge, wrapped in clingfilm for at least 15 minutes to make it easier to work with.

4. Peel and core your apples. Then slice them into slices roughly 5mm thick. Place them in a bowl out of the way.

5. Preheat the oven to 175C and lightly grease your pie/tart tin. Mine is 23cm diameter.

6. On a lightly floured surface roll out two thirds of your dough into a rough circle about 1/6” thick. Use this to line your tart tin. Keep the overhang for now. Return the rest to the fridge while you do the filling.

7. In a new bowl mix together the sugar, flour and cinnamon for the filling. Transfer the apples to this bowl using your hands or a slotted spoon, leaving behind any liquid that your apples may have released. Toss them well in the sugar mixture and then use them to fill your pie case. I did a rose pattern again, like I did for the chocolate pear tart, but I hard enough apples to do the same again as another layer. I also filled the middle with similar sized slices of apple, as due to not being as tender as the pears I could only get so close to the middle. (See pictures).

8. Roll out the remaining dough into a rough circle and cut out the middle to make a steam hole.

9. OPTIONAL. Slice the dough into 16 segments, cutting from about 1 cm away from the steam hole right to the edge. Twist these segments in alternating directions. (See pictures).

10. Use a fork to crimp the edges together and then remove any overhang and excess dough.

11. Use some egg wash if you desire (I did no do mine very evenly, oops) and bake for 40-45 minutes until golden. Allow to cool for 5-10 minutes before serving warm, or allow to cool completely and store in an airtight container.