After a long busy period, here’s the latest of my creative cooking. This French apple tart was prepared for the “Chefs Battle Winter” competition. I’ve finished baking it in the evening, and took the below pictures the morning after. The credit for this recipe belongs to Beth Le Manach.

The recipe and all the ingredients are targeted for a round baking form 24 centimeters in diameter.

Base

• 150 grams of flour
• 100 grams of cold butter
• 10 grams of sugar powder
• A pinch of salt
• 1 egg yolk
• 30 ml water

In a food processor, using a cutting-knife extension, cut/beat together the flour, the butter, the salt and the sugar powder for about 30 seconds, in order to make sure that all the ingredients are mixed thoroughly. The butter should be cut into small cubes and added to the flour gradually. Continue the process until getting small crumbs. Mix the water with the egg yolk and “beat” the mixture a bit with a fork, and then pour in gradually into the working food processor’ bowl. The resulting dough should be processed until to sticks into one piece (or a couple of large ones), no more than 20-30 seconds. Put the dough on a floured surface, form it into a flattened ball shape, cover with a plastic wrap and put to rest in a refrigerator for 30 minutes. After removing it from the refrigerator, we roll out the dough to be slightly larger than the size of our baking form, put it in the form itself, cut the remaining edges, make some holes with a fork, cover again and put in a refrigerator.

Apple Compote (the filling)

• 3 medium-sized apples, preferably green/sour ones
• 60 ml of water
• 60 ml of apple juice
• 25 gr of sugar
• 1/2 tbsp of ground cinnamon
• Zest of 1 lemon

Start with peeling the apples, and then cut them into small cubes. Put all of the ingredients into thick-bottomed pan. Bring to boiling, cover with a lid and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove the lid, increase the heat to maximum and mash the resulting mass slightly with a fork, until the remaining liquids evaporate (approximately a couple of minutes). Then let the result cool.

Upper Garnish

• 2 medium-sized apples
• Juice of half a lemon
• 1 tbsp of apricot jam

Peel the apples and cut them into very thin slices. In a small bowl, pour the lemon juice over the apple slices and mix.

Constructing and Baking the Tart

Take out the baking form with the base from the refrigerator. “Pour” in the filling and spread it evenly on the surface. Now put the apple slices on top of the filling in a spiral manner from the external edge towards the center. Bake at 130 C for 15 minutes, then lower the temperature to 200 C and bake for 20 more minutes. Heat the jam and filter it (to remove the lumps/solids). Spread the liquid jam over the hot tart and let it cool. Bon Appetit!

Read the original on: Dos Gatos Kitchen