French Apple Tart

I try and participate when ever I can with the ladies in IHCC , I heart cooking clubs group. They always have some chef,  whose recipes we will try for a certain period of time.  Now they are doing Ina Garten. I was not familiar with her shows,  so I checked out. Her recipes are pretty simple and straight forward. This week's theme was French Bistro Recipes,
now I have never been to a french bistro but I  think they will probably have something simple and delicious like this french apple tart. I found this recipe on food net work channel.

I used half of the recipe, because its usually me and my hubby who eats these kind of deserts, while the boys would just take a small bite, say its nice and when I ask them if would like  a slice they would go no. Well at least they tasted it.

Making flaky pastry in Maldives  at this time of the year  is a bit daunting as its pretty hot, so have to work really quickly so the butter doesn't melt so first so fast, especially when rolling it.
Apricot jam is not a big favorite in the house so I got one of those mini jam  jars  instead of purchasing a large bottle.

Recipe:  French Apple Tart, Recipe by Ina Garten from  Food Network

Pastry
1cup flour
1 tbsp sugar
pinch salt
75g butter, cold, cut into small cubes
ice cold water, a few tablespoons

Topping
2 green apples
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp soft butter
1 tbsp apricot jam
1 tbsp warm water

First prepare the  pastry:  rub the butter into the flour , salt and sugar mix, so they look like rough bread crumbs,  add a few tablespoons of ice water. It should just come together into a ball , dont knead. Pile one to a cling film and wrap it around the ball, flatten and chill in fridge for 1 hour. I didnt have time when I made it so I placed in the freezer for 15- 20 minutes.

While the dough chills prepare the apples, peel, slice into quarters and remove the core.Slice into thin slices.

Preheat oven to 200 degree C .

Take the cling film out. Now this is what  I did, I took a square sheet of baking paper, laid it out on the work board. Then placed the  chilled dough on top of the baking paper,  , removed the cling film. Then I laid that cling film on top of the dough and rolled the dough between the sheet of cling film and baking paper, to a thin, but not too thin circle or what ever shape you can manage.  Remove the cling film.

You can neaten it up to make the perfect circle or leave it out. Place the baking paper with the rolled dough on a baking tray. Now arrange the apples in a neat arrangement over lapping each other slightly.  You might have a few slices left, can always eat them right?

Anyway......  where was I ?  ..... Now Sprinkle the sugar on top. It will look quite a lot but believe me it does give the apples a sweet taste, it will get messy but  it tastes good in the end.

   Dot bits of the remaining 1 tsp butter  around  on top, just tiny blobs . Pop into the oven,  first keep in the bottom shelf then  after  say 20 minutes remove and place in the middle shelf. It really depends on how good your oven is , mine can give me trouble at times.

Bake 45mins to 1 hour.  Take it out once its cooked, I ended up burning the edges but the rest turned out good.  Mix the apricot jam with the water and brush it on top of the apples. This gives the apples that shiny look and also the extra sweet taste.

Cool and cut into slices and serve.

Linkin this over at the IHCC's  theme for this week Ina's Bistro. click link to see  what the rest has cooked too...