French Apple Tart

One of my farm market finds last weekend was large basket of red delicious apples. They ended up being more than we could eat, so I went on a mission to find something to bake them into. Pies still intimidate me something fierce, so I decided to look for a tart. H loves fruity desserts, and probably would have been (secretly) disappointed had I baked them into muffins or cupcakes. I found a recipe for a French Apple Tart from Ina Garten, and since I've heard nothing but praise for her recipes, I decided it would work. To be honest though, it did still intimidate me, but I decided to bite the bullet.

And yes, I'm glad I did! Of course it didn't turn out as beautiful as the one in the picture, it was still delicious and not as difficult as I expected. And H loooved it, which of course, made me happy as well :) 

French Apple Tart
(serves 6-8)


For the dough:
2 cups of all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon of Kosher salt
1 Tablespoon of sugar
12 Tablespoons of cold butter, diced
1/2 cup of ice cold water

For the apples:
 4-6 Granny Smith apples (I used red delicious, which worked as well)

1/2 cup sugar
4 Tablespoons of cold unsalted butter, diced
2 teaspoons of cinnamon


Directions: In the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade, combine flour, sugar, and salt. Pulse to mix. Add diced butter, and pulse 10-12 times for 4 second intervals, or until butter is no larger than the size of peas. With the motor running, slowly pour ice cold water down the feed tube until dough starts to form. Dump onto a floured work surface, and knead into a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least an hour.

Preheat oven to 400 and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Roll out dough onto a floured work surface and trim to about a 10x14" rectangle. Place on baking sheet, and place in refrigerator while you prep the apples. Wash and peel apples, and slice them vertically into 1/4" slices (removing the cores). Arrange them in overlapping slices over the dough. Sprinkle the whole cup of sugar all over the apples, then cinnamon, and then arrange the diced butter on top of that.

Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until apples start to brown slightly. Remove from oven, and let cool slightly. Loosen tart from parchment paper with a metal spatula. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream. Enjoy!

Adapted from Food Network, original recipe here.