French Apple Tart - Barefoot Contessa

Barefoot said in her introduction to this recipe that this is her 'all time favourite dessert'.

Have had good results so far with Ina Garten's recipes so decided to give this ago.

Recipe source from Back to Basics

Dough
2 cups all purpose flour, sieved
½ tsp salt
1 tbsp caster sugar
170g chilled unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
½ cup iced water (may not need to use all)

Method:
1. In a large bowl, mix in flour, salt and sugar.

2. Rub in butter until resemble breadcrumbs.

3. Add water as required until dough comes together into a ball.

4. Chill in refrigerator for at least 1 hour.

5. Roll dough out into thin rectangular pizza, trim edges if you wish to keep it looking neat. Using a fork, poke some holes on the dough. Store in fridge while you prepare the apple filling or until ready to bake.

Note if in a rush, can use puff pastry for the base instead.

Filling
4 granny smith apples (cut into slices)
½ cup sugar (use caster sugar cos when I used brown sugar it was not sweet enuf!)
65g butter, cut into small cubes

6. Arrange apple slices over the dough - overlapping slices of apples diagonally down the middle of the tart and continue making diagonal rows on both sides of the first row until the pastry is covered with apple slices.

7. Dust sugar on top of apples and ground cinnamon (optional).

8. Scatter/dot butter over the apples and bake in pre-heated oven at 180C degrees for 40-45 min until pastry and apples start to brown. Rotate pan once during cooking.

Glaze
½ cup apricot jelly
2 tbsp water/rum

9. In a small saucepan, gently warm up glaze up before brushing glaze on top of baked apples.

10. Allow to cool and serve warm with a big scoop of vanilla ice-cream! :)

Have a good weekend everyone.

Snap shot - Tulips

One of my favourite flowers.
There's just something about them that cheers me up instantly. Can't tire looking at them. There are many varieties available and just love them all.

One of my favourite shot - notice the butterfly?

Rows of tulips.


They are everywhere - in the fields, in rows, in bushes, in buckets & pots etc.


There's something related with tulips and windmills! *wonder what that is :) *

Tesselaar Tulip Festival in Melbourne (Sept-Oct).

Word of advice - wear old shoes as it may get a little muddy and dirty (not to mention faint stench of manure - they also have carriage rides drawn by horses) as you explore the tulip fields! On the way, feel free (if you are not tired spending the entire day frolicking in the tulip fields) to drop by the local fruit and honey farms.

Pictures taken a few years back @ 2006.