cookery · x

a small apple tart

one tart · one hour · october, november

ingredients

• 200g plain flour
• 120g cold butter, cubed
• a heavy pinch of salt
• three or four small tart apples
• two heavy spoons of sugar, plus one
• a knob of butter for the top

method

1. rub the cold butter into the flour and salt with cool hands; bring it together with a splash of icy water; rest in the cold for half an hour.
2. roll the pastry into a rough circle on baking paper; arrange the apple, sliced thin, in tight spirals; scatter the sugar; dot with butter.
3. fold the edges in pleated and bake hot for thirty-five minutes, until the pastry is dark and the apples have caught at the edges.

the irregular tart, made by hand and not by a tin, is the better one.

eaten warm at eight with a little cream, or cold from the larder at three the next afternoon; the kitchen smells of october for a day.