The Easiest French Apple Tart
- Total Time: 1 hour 45 minutes
- Yield: 1 tart
Dough recipe: This is the only pie dough, tart dough, galette dough, pastry I use. It’s foolproof. Here are five recipes I use it in.
Dough can be made up to 3 days in advance and stored in the fridge or made weeks in advance and stored in the freezer. I typically make a double batch and freeze one round for a future use, but I’ve written the recipe below to yield one pastry round.
The filling for this French apple tart recipe is inspired by Sarah Copeland’s Every Day is Saturday, in which there is a lovely gluten-free variation.
Save your pie dough scraps and make cinnamon snails.
Ingredients
For the tart dough:
- 1 1/4 cups (160g) all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon (14 g) sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon table or kosher salt
- 8 tablespoons (114 g) cold, cubed butter, salted or unsalted
- 1/4 C. + 1 T. (71 g) ice water
For the apple tart:
- 3 to 4 apples, I typically use Honey Crisp; use what you like
- 1/4 cup (57 g) butter, salted or unsalted
- 1/4 cup (61 g) sugar
For serving:
- 1 cup heavy cream
- confectioner’s sugar to taste
- flaky sea salt, such as maldon, if you have it, kosher or other salt if you don’t
Instructions
- Make the pastry: In the bowl of a food processor, pulse the flour, sugar and salt together. Add the cold, cubed butter to the food processor. Pulse at 1-second intervals until butter is the size of peas—should be about 10 quick pulses. Add the ice water and pulse again about 10 times until the mixture is crumbly but holds together when pinched. Lay a clean tea towel on a work surface. Dump the crumbly dough mixture into the center of it. Grab the four corners of the towel together and twist to create a beggar’s purse, pressing the dough into a round.
- On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the dough into a 12- or 13-inch round. Use as much flour as needed to prevent the dough from sticking, and every few rolls, flip the dough over. Transfer dough to a tart pan with a removable bottom. Fit the dough into the pan, trimming the edges. (Save the scraps; see notes above.) Transfer to freezer for 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 425ºF and place a rack in the center of the oven.
- Prepare the apples. Cut the “cheeks” of the apples off the core into four pieces — each piece will have one large flat side. Lay each piece on its flat side and slice thinly, keeping the slices together as you go. Arrange the slices around the tart in any pattern you desire, fanning the apples as you go. You may need to cut some of the apple fans to fit.
- Sprinkle evenly with the 1/4 cup sugar and 1/4 cup cubed butter. Transfer to a rimmed sheet pan. (I like to line with parchment paper for easy cleanup.) Transfer to the oven for 35 to 40 minutes, checking after 15 minutes: if it is browning too quickly, lower the temperature to 400ºF. I find 425ºF works perfectly, and I actually will turn the oven to convection bake during the last 2 to 3 minutes to get some more caramelization on the apples. This is unnecessary — the uncaramelized apple slices taste delicious, too — but I find it visually appealing and tasty.
- Make the whipped cream. Place the heavy cream in the bowl of a stand mixer and whip until soft peaks begin to form. (You can do this by hand, too, with a bowl and whisk.) Add confectioner’s sugar — start with 1/4 cup and add more to taste. Add a big pinch of sea salt and beat to combine and until the peaks begin getting firmer. Taste — the mixture should be slightly sweet and the salt should be noticeable, though the whipped cream should not taste salty.
- Serve the tart warm or at room temperature with dollops of the whipped cream.
