I've made this apple tart countless times. At first I was intimidated by the Jacques Pepin, Alice Waters and Deb Perelman pedigree that the recipe has attached. I followed all steps to the letter (except Deb's glaze - ain't no one got time for that) - I arranged the apple slices in careful circles. I melted and brushed butter on the edges with a pastry brush. I even measured the sugar for the apple filling!
As one becomes familiar with recipes over time, things became much more relaxed. This is 5 ingredient dessert and once you make it once or twice with a recipe guiding you through, you should be able to give it a firm place in your repertoire. The apples will not be evenly cooked if you do not arrange them in circles, but I like the textural contrast of slightly caramelized top apples to the saucy situation underneath. What makes me come back to this over and over again is the comforting baked apple smell that comes from the oven, and that simple, vaguely sweet and intensely flaky pastry.
Essentially the dough is a pâte brisée sucrée. If my French serves me right, this is translated as 'broken sugared dough' and I think it's nice of the French to offer sugar after a beating. The beauty of not incorporating the butter fully into the flour becomes visible when you roll out the dough and the intact pieces of butter are stretched throughout the disk. Those little buggers melt in the oven, leaving behind pockets of air which make the dough so flaky that it verges on a puff pastry.
I am not sure that I need to sell the finished product much. It is a warm, comforting tart, perfect for after dinner, as it can bake while you eat. It's also not a dessert that lingers. It rarely survives until the next morning as it's so light that a group of 3 or 4 will finish it easily and then wish there was more.
As a bonus, here is a video of the always charming Jacques Pepin making a version of the dough to use for simple fruit tarts and a the more complex Tarte Tatin.
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