Sweet Paste:
• Pinch of golden caster sugar
• 8 oz. of diced cold butter
• 16 oz. of plain sieved flour
• 3 tbsp. of cold milk to bind
1. To begin this paste in a large bowl, sieve your flour and add your golden caster.
2. Add your diced butter to the flour and rub together to combine. This is a key step to making short pastry as you want the flour and butter to be blended evenly.
3. Once blended add your touch of milk to bind.
4. Once ready and the bowl is clean wrap your sweet paste in some cling film to relax, by allowing the dough to relax you are letting the gluten in the flour to further relax which you work when making a Tarte case.
5. Lay out your pop bottom tarte cases and line with butter as this helps to form a non-stick surface.
6. Divide your dough into portions of four and roll on either a floured surface or between two sheets of non-stick greaseproof paper (if you don’t want to make a mess)
7. Roll your dough out to the thickness of a one-pound coin, for me I prefer to have a thin crisp base to my tarte au citron.
8. Using a blunt knife cut your pastry and push into the tarte cases. For even pushing use a little of the dough from the trim to ensure that you have all of the dough pushed into the edges of the tarte case.
9. Blind bake with some greaseproof paper and baking beans as this achieves an even bake.
10. By blind baking a tarte case you help to ensure that the case is water tight and will be able to hold the filling.
11. Blind bake from 15-20 minutes until lightly golden allow to cool completely in the tarte case before pushing out.
Apple Puree:
• 4 large Bramley Apples
• Knob of butter
• Add a pinch of golden caster sugar
• 4 Bruised Bay Leaves
• Juice of one lemon
1. To begin melt down your butter in a large saucepan, once melted and lightly foaming add your bruised bay leaves to allow the flavour to perfume the butter.
2. Next add your brunoise of apple and coat with the melted butter, next add the juice of one lemon and a pinch of golden caster sugar.
3. Cook down until you have a thick intense puree. Personally I don’t like to cook the apples down too much as a little texture is nice, allowing for some chunkier cubes of apples along with the mushy puree.
4. Once cooked place into a Pyrex dish and place in the fridge until cool, as you want to serve the apple puree at room temperature.
Caramel Sauce:
• ¼ of a pack of butter
• 150 grams of golden caster sugar
• Enough water to cover
1. Place your sugar into the pan with just enough water to cover the sugar, place onto the boil and cook until you have a thick caramel.
2. Once at this point remove from the heat and whisk in your butter one piece at a time, this helps to add both shine and body to your caramel, resulting in a thick shiny sauce – this tarte au Pomme is quite sweet with so the addition of a little Cornish Sea Salt is welcomed.
3. Once ready pour enough out to line the base of your tarts. You can decant the rest into a pre-warmed glass jar to keep in the fridge (as this is delicious drizzled over ice cream or walnuts)
Crème Fraiche:
1. To accompany this dish; in a small ball zest one un-waxed lemon and add two large tablespoons of crème fraiche and ripple through.
Sugar Glazed Bramleys:
1. Using an incredibly sharp knife finely slice your Brambley apples and lay in a circle onto a baking tray.
2. Dust with a little caster sugar, using a blowtorch glaze the apple slices – this helps to add a little crunch to apples and gives them a great shine.
3. Allow to cool down on the tray and remove using a palette knife.
The Gourmet Gent 