Basic Professional French Cooking

Tarte Alsacienne

    A Tarte Alsacienne is an Alsacian style apple tart. It differs from the classic apple tart in two ways: the apples are cut into wedges rather than slices, and the tart is filled with sweet custard before baking.

    Use a standard pâté brisée to line the tart rings. Remember that 250 g (9 oz) of flour produces enough dough for one tart. When cutting the apples, cut them into 8 wedges.

    The custard filling is prepared in the usual way. Remember that 6 whole eggs or the equivalent (2 yolks equal one whole egg) are enough to set one liner (34 fl oz) of custard. A standard Tarte Alsacienne requires about 300 ml of custard filling.

Ingredients

For the Pâté Brisée

200 g Flour (8 oz)

20 g Granulated Sugar (1 oz)

5 g Salt

100 g Butter (3.5 oz)

1 Egg

10 ml Water (.5 fl oz)

25 g Flour for rolling out pastry

10 g Butter for tart ring

For the Custard

2 Whole Eggs

40 g Sugar (1.5 oz)

100 ml Milk (3 fl oz)

100 ml Cream (3 fl oz)

Vanilla Extract

1 Lemon

3 Golden Delicious or Reinette de Canada Apples

Confectioner’s Sugar for coating apples

1 Egg for egg wash

Confectioner’s Sugar for final decoration

Procedure

Pâté Brisée

Follow the procedures for making pâté brisée in the recipe for Tarte aux Pommes.

Preparing the Custard Filling

1. -Beat the eggs with sugar.
   

2. -Add the cream, the milk and the vanilla extract.
   

3. -Strain the mixture.
   

Preparing the Apples

1. -Peel the apples and rub them with lemon.
   

2. -Cut them in half and remove cores.
   

3. -Cut each half into 4 wedges. Toss the wedges in powdered sugar and lemon juice.
   

Constructing the Tarte

1. -Roll out the pastry as described in the Tarte aux Pommes recipe and form the tart shell. Refrigerate.
   

2. -When the pastry is cold, blind bake it in a 375 F oven for 10 minutes.
   

3. -Remove the beans and parchment paper and arrange th apple wedges tightly in a spiral pattern around the tart.
   

4. -Place in a 375 F oven and bake for 10 minutes.
   

5. -Remove from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes, Lower the oven to 325 F. Place the tart in the 325 F oven and add half of the custard mixture. Bake until it begins to set, 10-15 minutes. Then add the other half of the custard and continue to bake.
   

6. -10 minutes before baking is done, remove the tart ring and brush the sides of the tart with egg wash. Sprinkle the top with powdered sugar.
   

7. -The tart is done when a skewer placed in the custard comes out clean and dry, when the custard is just set. Remove to a cooling rack and serve at room temperature.
   

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