The Core Facts

Overall verdict: Very good: a tarte aux pommes combining creamy custard and nice chunks of sweet apple
Timings: 25 mins prep + 1 hour chilling + 25 mins bake
Sugar: 130g
Butter: 125g + 100ml double cream
Type of apple: Braeburn

The Long Peel

A confession: I had to redo this Daniel Galmiche recipe for apple tart. My first attempt was awful – the apple was extremely rubbery as I left it in the oven for too long. In my defence, I had under-done the Raymond Blanc apple tart and was trying to ensure a thorough bake this time. Conclusion: getting the timing exactly right on a tarte aux pommes is quite hard.

The Pastry

I really need to get better at rolling out pastry to fit my dish. The French chefs in particular always stress that you shouldn’t stretch the pastry and yet I always do. This is probably why both of my tartes aux pommes so far have ended up with thin burnt edges (see my Raymond Blanc apple tart recipe for corroboration).

This was another recipe where the ingredients simply said “pastry” so I found Daniel’s recipe for pâte sucrée and used that. It uses a lot of egg, which made it quite sticky – it took a while to get it rolled out.

The difference with this tart was that Daniel asks for ground almonds to be sprinkled on the pastry before you add the apple.

The Apples

The apples are untreated for this one. Daniel simply asks for them to be cored, peeled and segmented and then arranged on the pastry before the cream + egg + sugar custard is poured on.

The Bake

The mistake I made with my first attempt was that I didn’t listen to Daniel. Trust me: when he says 20-25 minutes, that’s what you should give it. The first one didn’t look cooked to me so I stupidly left it in for 30 and I paid the price.

The Dish

I need to get a more suitable dish for tarte aux pommes. Mine is too deep and I keep ending up with pizza-like crusts around the edge.

The Hot Slice

I’m so glad I redid this one. The single slice of the first version looked like a piece of pizza that had fallen down the back of a radiator. This slice shows the balance of pieces of apple with the creamy custard.

The Rested Result

I love that you can see the creaminess of it:

If We Repeeled

• Get a shallower dish that is more suitable for tarte aux pommes
• Listen to Daniel – he says bake for 20-25 minutes, not 30

Scores

Simplicity of bake: Quite simple
Pastry texture: Lovely – it held together well while having a crumbliness to it
Pastry taste: Good – a quality pastry
Apple texture: Harder than most of the tarts so far but they complimented the creaminess of the custard – and at least they weren’t rubbery
Apple taste: Deliciously light
Apple to pastry ratio: I like a bit more apple but it was right for this tart
Overall score: 7