Apple tart

It looks like it has been quite a long time since I wrote my last post -_-U Well, I could use a long range of excuses, being the first one that I've moved to London, but they would sound a bit lame. Anyways, i'm back to baking (at last!) so I'll try to update this blog more frecuently.

My latest bake has been an apple tart for my boyfriend. I made it for Valentine's day because it's his favourite dessert (and besides, he doesn't like that much red colored desserts nor sugar hearts XD). It took me a little more than I expected to roll the pastry dough because I'm quite clumsy with the rolling pin but I somehow managed to make it look neat.

The recipes I used come from a book called Step-by-step baking and they're a mixture of two different ones with a little "personal touch".

Here come the recipes I used:

Ingredients for the pastry crust:

150g plain flour, plus some extra for dusting the surface when rolling
100g butter, diced
50g caster sugar
1 egg yolk
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Method for the pastry crust:

1. In a bowl, rub the flour and the butter together to form fine crumbs.
2. Add the sugar and the cinnamon to the crumbs and mix.
3. Beat the egg yolk separately and then add it to the crumbs and mix until well blended.
4. Form a dough (if it's too dry add a little water), wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for 1 hour.
5. Preheat the oven to 180ºC and meanwhile roll out the pastry to form a 3mm thick circle.
6. Line a 22cm loose-bottomed tart tin with the pastry, trimming any excess pastry that may hang down from the border of the tin.
7. Prick the pastry base all over with a fork and then put over the pastry a piece of baking parchment (covering the base of the pastry).
8. Fill the base of the baking parchment with baking beans (I don't have baking beans so I use raw chickpeas) and bake it for 20 minutes in the preheated oven.
9. Remove the beans and the paper and bake for 5 minutes more. Take out of the oven but not out of the tin and let it cool.

Ingredients for the crème pâstissière:

100g caste sugar
50g cornflour
2 eggs
400ml whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method for the crème pâstissière:

1. Beat the sugar, cornflour, eggs and vanilla extract in a bowl.
2. Boil the milk in a heavy saucepan and take it off the heat as soon as it bubbles.
3. Pour the hot milk into the egg mixture while whisking (if you stop whisking the eggs will begin to cook and thus to harden).
4. Put the mixture in the saucepan and bring to boil over medium heat, whisking constantly. When it thickens, reduce the heat to low and keep whisking for 2 minutes more.
5. When the cremè is done (it must be thick but not set) transfer to a bowl and cover with cling film until it cools completely.

Ingredients for the assembling of the tart:

1 pastry case
1 bowl of crème pâstissière
2 small apples (I used Royal Gala)
juice from 1/2 lemon
2 tablespoons apricot jam

Method to assemble the tart:

1. Preheat oven to 190°C.
2. Beat the crème pâstissière and spread it over the pastry case.
3. Peel (I didn't peel them because I though that they looked prettier with their reddish peel on) and thinly slice the apples (I found easier to slice the apples when I didn't core them, but instead I took a whole apple and sunk the knife into it following its lenght and then I sunk the knife parallely to the prior cut but about 2 mm away) and arrange them over the cremè. Brush the apples with the lemon juice.
4. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until the apple slices have softenedand are starting to turn pale golden.
5. Warm and sieve the apricot jam and brush it over the top.

My boyfriend loved the tart though he said that the apple were sightly uncooked. I guess I'll have to practice more with my new oven. It's a gas oven and I'm not used to this kind but here, in UK, everybody seems to have very old appliances and prefer gas ovens to the electrical ones (and I don't get why seeing that electricity here is cheaper than gas -_-). To be honest, our home right now is old and outdated, so I'm not sure if I can apply what I'm seeing here as a general rule (though I'm looking for another apartment and all I've seen so far are gas ovens). Thank God we're moving next month! (to another house, not back to Spain T_T)