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French Apple Tart

A mix of my favorite pie dough recipe with Jacques Pepin’s technique
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Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Servings: 1 8-inch tart
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Ingredients Method

Ingredients
  

For the pie dough:
  • 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 tablespoon sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 stick of cold unsalted butter cut into cubes
  • 1/4 cup ice water plus more if necessary
For the apple tart:
  • 3 1/2 tablespoons sugar divided
  • 1 tablespoon flour
  • 4 apples I like a variety of baking apples, peeled, cored, sliced thinly into 1/4-inch pieces
  • 2 tablespoons melted butter
  • 2 tablespoons apricot preserves melted and strained (optional)
  • Vanilla ice cream optional

Method
 

  1. First, make the pie dough. In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients, add the cold butter, and pinch for a good minute or two until the mixture looks like wet sand with pea-sized pieces. Add half of the water, toss together loosely with your hands, and try to grab a clump. If it holds together, that’s enough water. If not, add more. When it clumps together, dump on to a floured board, knead it a few times just until it comes together, and then collect it into a disc. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
  2. Heat the oven to 400 degrees.
  3. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. On a floured surface, roll out your dough so that it stretches into a 16-inch round about 1/4-inch thick. Use the rolling pin to transfer it to the cookie sheet.
  4. Mix together 2 tablespoons of sugar with the 1 tablespoon of flour and sprinkle all over the center of the dough. Lay your apples inside, either piecing together concentric circles, or laying your rows like in the pictures above, leaving 3 inches on all sides.
  5. Fold the dough over the apples in a free-form fashion, making sure not to cover too much. Brush the apples with the melted butter, sprinkle with the remaining sugar, and bake in the oven for an hour. The tart is done when the dough is deep golden brown, the apples are brown in spots, and the liquid is bubbling slightly. If you want, you can brush the apples with the apricot glaze for a shinier look. Allow to cool and serve with vanilla ice cream.