Scrumptiously Simple Apple Tart...

There's nothing quite like a good apple tart.

The simpler the better in my book, to really let the apples sing. When it comes to cooking, although I am an ardent fan of spending a day labouring over an everything-made-from-scratch complex recipe, there is also something extremely satisfying about conjuring up something delicious from few ingredients in a short space of time.

This is also a fabulous pudding to have in your repertoire, especially when you're short of time. In this vein it is perfectly acceptable, I think, to use shop bought short crust pastry here, the trick is to roll it out as thin as you can, to ensure a really crisp finish.

I use just a little added depth of flavour with the help of some sugar, butter, cloves &cinnamon, but it's a subtle spice rather than anything too heavy, again letting the apples do the work. You can, ofcourse, add as little or as much as you like to suit personal taste.

Today, I was making a smaller tart, suitable for 4 people and using an 8 inch tart tin, but whatever size you're making, you can simply adapt the recipe accordingly.

If you're making the pastry from scratch:
-Combine 200g plain flour with 80g of unsalted butter, rubbing between your fingertips to the consistency of breadcrumbs. Alternatively, blitz in the food processor.
-Stir through 50g of sugar. Then slowly add in one whisked egg yolk and add ice cold water slowly until the mixture is just wet enough to form a ball.
-Flatten the pastry, so it'll be easier to roll out later, and wrap in cling film, before putting in the fridge for at least an hour.
-Remove the chilled pastry from the fridge and leave to soften a little, before rolling out as thin as possible and lining the tin with it, leave the pastry overhang to fold over the apples later.
-Peel, core and thinly slice 3 apples of your choice, keeping them together in halves (I used Jazz this time, they needn't be cooking apples).
-Place the slice apples into the lined tin in their slice halves and fan them out slightly so the tin is quite tightly packed and then fold the overlapping pastry back into the tin over the apples
-Stir together 1.5 tablespoons of butter, half a teaspoon of ground cloves, and half a teaspoon of cinnamon and drizzle over the tart, and sprinkle over 2 teaspoon of caster sugar and 2 teaspoons of brown sugar.
-Bake in the oven for 40minutes, until the apples are soft the the pastry is golden brown and crisp.
-Delicious served with vanilla ice cream, or creme anglaise.