brown sugar apple crumble tart

Good Friday morning – just a very quick post of this apple crumble tart recipe that I recently put together for Dish magazine. It’s basically got a brown sugar short pastry, topped with a wee bit of sweet jam, filled with loads of tart apples and then a sweet brown sugar crumbly topping. Basically all the good bits put together! You really need to serve it with softly whipped cream or ice cream to make the most of it – cool and creamy with all that fruity crumble…

Super brief state of the nation – Pog has just switched direction in Melbourne and is now lined up to go from graphic design to interior design, which as any one who knows him will attest, will suit him down to the ground. I have no doubt he will be bloody brilliant. Meanwhile Hoob has exams looming in Welly…so a bit of stressy pressure to deal with – but so far he’s had amazing essay results. That man/boy is more capable than he realises! And I’ve just finished shooting my next spread for Dish, some really delicious recipes and (I think) pretty decent pics, so hurrah 🙂 Anyhoo – wishing you a happy (if damp) weekend…

Filling:

5 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and cut into 3cm pieces

3 tablespoons brown sugar

2 tablespoons water

3 tablespoons of your favourite jam (I used raspberry and rhubarb)*

Pastry:

110g cold butter, chopped

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 1/3 cups plain flour

1 cold egg yolk

1-2 teaspoons cold water

Crumble:

3/4 cup plain flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup rolled oats

80g cold butter, chopped

Put apple chunks in a large frying pan with brown sugar and water. Cook over a medium heat for 15 minutes until the apples are just soft and the water evaporated, then set aside.

Preheat the oven to 180˚C. Pop pastry butter, brown sugar and flour in a food processor and whiz to form breadcrumbs, add yolk and 1 teaspoon of water and pulse until the mixture forms large clumps (add extra water only if needed). Tip out onto a clean bench and pat and squash together into a pastry disc. Cover in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 15 minutes. Remove from the fridge and roll pastry out on a lightly floured bench. Release from the bench if necessary with a spatula and fit into a 26cm loose-bottomed tart tin. Press into the sides and base, patching any holes and trimming away any excess pastry. Prick the bottom lightly with a fork and put in the freezer for 5 minutes. Put a large circle of baking paper into the pastry base and fill the tart tin with baking beans or rice. Bake for 12 minutes, remove the baking paper and baking beans and cook a further 8 minutes.

While the base is cooking put all of the crumble ingredients in a food processor and pulse to form big clumpy breadcrumbs. Once the base is cooked, spread jam on top of the pastry, tip in apples and sprinkle with crumble topping – squishing some of the crumble into lovely big lumps. Bake a further 25 minutes then rest for 20 minutes before removing from the tin. This can be made in advance, removed from the tin when cold and reheated for 10 minutes in the oven, but is also great at room temperature. Serves 6-8 with a big scoop of vanilla bean ice cream.