Amys Freaky Good Apple Tart Recipes

Steps:

• For apples, preheat oven to 400 degrees. Scatter butter pieces and sprinkle sugar evenly in a 9 to 10-inch copper tartin pan or heavy baking pan. Tightly pack apple halves around inside edge of pan, reserve 4, standing upright, nestled against one another, with round side tilted down. Place 4 remaining halves in similar position in center of pan. (Apples will shrink as they cook and slip round side down into pan.) Bake for about 2 hours. Transfer pan from oven to stove top and cook over medium-high heat until butter and sugar caramelize to a rich brown, 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from heat, and gently ease sticky apples away from side of pan with a knife. Refrigerate overnight so that apples firm up and "confit" further.
• For pastry, preheat oven to 350 degrees about 1 hour before serving tart. Sift flour, salt, and sugar into a bowl. Rub butter into flour mixture with your fingers until it resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle in 3 tablespoons ice water and work dough until it just holds together. Form into a ball, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Roll out dough on a floured surface into a 12-inch circle. Drape pastry over apples and pan. Roll the rolling pin across of pan to cut off excess pastry and allow pastry to fall over apples against the inside edge of pan. Bake in oven (still at 350) until pastry is flaky and golden, about 20 minutes. Remove from oven, place a flat ovenproof platter on top of tartin pan and invert quickly and carefully. Do not unmold yet. Reduce heat to 300 degrees and return platter and pan to oven for 10 minutes. Remove tartin pan and serve warm.

Steps:

• For the pastry, rub the butter into the flour, sugar and a pinch of salt in a bowl until crumbly. Mix in the egg until it forms a dough, then form into a puck shape. Cover and chill for at least 30 mins. Will keep chilled for two days.
• Heat the oven to 200C/180C fan/ gas 6. Roll the pastry out on a lightly floured surface to roughly the thickness of a £1 coin, and use to line a 23cm fluted tart tin, leaving some overhanging. Line with a disc of baking parchment big enough to cover the edges, and fill with some baking beans to weigh it down (use dried rice or lentils if you don't have baking beans). Bake for 15 mins, then remove the parchment and beans and bake for 10-15 mins more until the pastry is biscuity. Trim away any overhanging pastry with a serrated knife. Set aside to cool.
• Meanwhile, set aside four of the apples, then peel, core and roughly chop the rest. Put them in a shallow saucepan with 2 tbsp water, all but 1 tbsp of the sugar and the alcohol, if using. Cover and cook over a low heat for 25-30 mins, stirring occasionally and adding more water if needed, until the apples have collapsed into a purée. Taste the mixture and sweeten with more sugar, if needed.
• Turn the oven up to 210C/190C fan/gas 8. Peel, core and halve the reserved apples, then cut into even-sized slices. Spread the apple purée over the base of the tart case, then arrange the apple slices in neat, concentric circles, starting from the outside. Brush the apples with butter, then scatter over the reserved sugar and bake for another 20-25 mins until golden.
• Mix the jam with 1 tbsp hot water from a freshly boiled kettle. When the tart has finished baking, glaze generously with the jam, then leave to cool a little. Serve warm or cold, dusted with icing sugar, if you like.