André Soltner’s Alsatian Apple Tart, or “Tarte Aux Pommes A L’Alsacienne”

by Liberta1787

This recipe is from the February 1982 issue of “Cuisine” magazine which seems now to be “Cuisine at home” magazine.

Tart Shell:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp. sugar
1/8 tsp. salt
6 Tbs. unsalted butter, cold, cut in small pieces
3 Tbs. very cold water, or as-needed

Combine flour, sugar, and salt. Cut in butter until mixture is size of small peas. Sprinkle water slowly over mixture, tossing with a fork. Use only enough water to barely combine ingredients. Turn onto lightly-floured board; knead just until it forms a ball.

Take an egg-sized portion, smear with heel of hand into a long strip. Repeat until all has been smeared. Gather into ball again, wrap in plastic, refrigerate 1 hour.

Heat oven to 375⁰F. Roll pastry on lightly-floured surface until ~ 1/8” thick. Place in 10” x 1” tart pan (removable bottom strongly preferred), Ease & press into pan. Pastry should form a tiny lip above the pan. Refrigerate 15 min.

Prick pastry bottom with a fork. Line with aluminum foil or parchment paper, fill with baking beans, rice, or pie weights. Bake 10min, then cool on wire rack 10 min, then remove liner and weights. (Note: I’ve found this to be too short a baking time; try 12-14min if the bottom looks barely-done. Peel up a liner corner to see.)

Tart Filling:
3 sweet cooking apples (get the tastiest you can find; almost all the flavor is from the apples)
1 egg
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tsp. kirsch  (I used closer to a tablespoon of Boyden Valley Winery’s Apple Crème Liqueur)
1/2 cup sugar

Pare and halve apples. Remove core with melon baller, cut V-notch to remove stem & blossom ends. Cut crosswise into ¼” slices. “Fan” between hands and spread apple half on tart shell. Four halves should fill the outer edge. One half-apple is placed in pan center (un-fanned). The rest of the slices surround the center and fill in between the fanned slices.

Bake in the same 375⁰F oven for 10 min.

Beat egg with cream, kirsch (or liqueur), and sugar, until sugar is dissolved. Pour over the partially-baked apples. Continue baking until apples are tender and custard is golden brown, about 15 min (Note: My baking time was closer to an additional half-hour for custard to fully set and start to turn color, rather than the 15 min claimed.)

Cool about 10 min on wire rack. Serve warm.

This is delicious either warm or cold, but it slices and serves more neatly when cold.