Pink Lady French apple tart

Pre heat
your oven to 200°C.

Short crust pastry

In a food
processor place the dry ingredients as well as the butter, pulse the machine
till the butter is broken into fine crumbs.

Be
careful not to over beat the mix as it will make the pastry tough and not
crumbly as we want it to be.

Add the
egg yolk and vanilla and mix till combined. (If the dough is not well bound
then add a teaspoon of ice water)

Wrap the
pastry in plastic wrap and place in the fridge for about an hour (this will
help the pastry to relax and firm up).

Filling and topping
Take 10
of the Pink Lady apples a core them.

Once
cored dice the apples and simmer over a medium heat in a heavy based pot with a
lid on and just enough water to avoid them from sticking or burning.

Stir the
apples occasional for about 20 minutes, remove from the heat and drain well in
a colander.

 Take the other 6 Pink Lady apples, cut into
quarters and cut out the core.

Cut each
¼ into six thin slices length wise trying to keep each slice the same in shape
and thickness.

Place the
slices into a bowl of water.

Lightly
dust a cool counter top with flour.

Flatten
out the pastry and start to roll it out with a rolling pin.

Roll till
the pastry is about a ¼ of a centimeter thick. 

Grease
the tin and please the pastry in.  

Press the
pastry into the corners and cut off any excess pastry hanging over the edge of
the tin.

Spread
cooked the apples in the pastry case and pat flat, fan out the sliced apples on
top of the other apple compote.

Make sure
that the apples are overlapping each other otherwise there will be gaps in the
tart when it is cooked.

Sprinkle
sugar or caster sugar over the tart before baking.

Place the
tart in the oven and bake for about 25 minutes till golden brown and the pastry
is cooked through.

Place on
a cooling wrack and allow to cool.

Remove
from tart tin and serve at room temperature or warm in the oven before serving.

(Do not
reheat in the microwave, the pastry will go soggy)

Serve
with cream or vanilla ice cream. 

Reprinted with permission of Pink Lady.