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Traditional Homemade Apple Tart

A simple, homemade apple tart with buttery, rustic pastry and tender, spiced apple slices. Perfectly sweet, comforting, and full of autumn flavour — best served warm with cream, custard, or ice cream.
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Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 45 minutes
Resting Time 2 hours
Total Time 3 hours 15 minutes
Servings: 8
Ingredients Equipment Method Notes

Ingredients
  

For the pastry
  • 300 g All purpose flour
  • 1/2 tsp Salt
  • 1 tbsp Sugar
  • 225 g Unsalted butter, cold and cubed
  • 120 ml Cold water
For the apple filling
  • 55 g Caster sugar
  • 1 tsp Ground cinnamon
  • 2 tbsp All purpose flour
  • 6-8 Medium dessert apples
  • 1-2 tsp Lemon juice

Equipment

  • Cling film
  • Pie pan (approx 9 inches)
  • Parchment paper
  • Rolling Pin
  • Wire rack

Method
 

  1. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, and salt.
  2. Add the cold, cubed butter and rub it into the flour with your fingertips until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs.
  3. Gradually add the cold water, mixing gently with a knife or your hands, until the dough just comes together.
  4. Place two sheets of cling film side by side on your work surface. Empty the mixing bowl onto one of them, scraping the sides with a spatula. The pastry will be crumbly and uneven. Quickly pat together without overworking the dough then cut in half with a spatula.
  5. Transfer one half of the pastry to the other piece of the cling film and shape both halves into balls and flatten.
  6. Wrap them up tightly and pop in the fridge for 1 hour.
  7. Next to make the filling. In a large bowl, stir together 55g sugar, cinnamon and flour. Set aside.
  8. Peel core and cut apples into thick slices.
  9. Place the apples in a medium saucepan 55 g sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon, 2 tbsp (15 g) flour, and 1–2 tsp lemon juice.
  10. Add just enough water to cover the bottom of the pan (about ½ cup / 125 ml) to prevent sticking
  11. Gently cook over medium heat for 5–10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the apples are just tender.
  12. Preheat oven to 220 °C. Grease a pie pan approx. 9 inches and set aside.
  13. Roll out half the pastry between two sheets of parchment paper into a circle (approx. 13 inches), make sure to work quickly and handle the dough as little as possible to keep it cool and easy to work with.
  14. Peel off one sheet of parchment paper and line the prepared pie pan with pastry, pastry side down. Carefully peel off the top sheet of parchment paper. If the paper sticks, place the pie pan in the refrigerator for a couple of minutes to cool the pastry allowing easy removal of the parchment paper.
  15. Add cooled apples to the pie pan lined with pastry. Roll out the other half of the pastry the same as above. Peel off one sheet of parchment paper and lay the pastry over the apples. Carefully remove the second sheet of parchment paper as described above.
  16. Seal pie crust by pressing down on the pastry, trimming the excess pastry to 1/4 inch from the pie pan. Crimp pastry edges and sprinkle the top of the tart with 1-2 tbsp sugar.
  17. Cut a few slits in the top crust with a sharp knife.
  18. Bake for 15 minutes at 220 °C. Then reduce temperature to 180 °C and cook for a further 30 minutes until the tart is golden brown.
  19. Allow the tart to cool for one hour before serving warm or at room temperature.

Notes

To have perfect flaky pastry - make sure the butter is very cold and keep the dough cool at all times. 
If the dough gets too warm and unworkable, place rolled out dough, still covered with sheets of parchment paper or cling film in the refrigerator until the dough is firm enough to handle. 
If the dough balls are left in the refrigerator for longer than 1 hour, they will become hard to roll out. Leave them at room temperature for a few minutes and then tap them with a rolling pin to make them more pliable. 
You do not necessarily need to use parchment paper, just roll out the pastry on a lighly floured surface and carry on with the recipe as normal.