Recipe: Julia Child’s Tarte aux Pommes

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Photo credit: © 2009 Jennifer S. Altman for the Los Angeles Times (The original image is no longer available, please contact KCRW if you need access to the original image.)

In 2009, Film Writer and KCRW contributor John Horn spent an afternoon baking with the late writer, director and producer Nora Ephron. He intended to interview her about her latest film Julie & Julia while the two made an apple tart from Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking.  Armed with a bottle of rose, ingredients for his preferred pie dough and a round zippered pastry bag, John convinced Ms. Ephron to put away her Pillsbury Pie Dough and make the pastry from scratch. This Saturday on Good Food, hear John recount the experience which he says remains one of his greatest days ever as a journalist.

Keep reading for the Tarte aux Pommes recipe they made that day…

Tarte aux Pommes

(from Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child)

Ingredients:

10-inch partially cooked pastry shell

4 pounds cooking apples 

1 teaspoon lemon juice

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1/3 cup apricot jam/preserves

1/3 cup Calvados, rum or cognac (or 1 tablespoon vanilla)

2/3 cup granualted sugar for topping

3 tablespoons butter

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 375F. Quarter, core, and peel the apples. Cut enough to make 3 cups into 1/8-inch lengthwise slices and toss them in a bowl with the lemon juice and sugar. Reserve them for the top of the tart.

2) Cut the rest of the apples into rough slices. You should have about 8 cups. Place in a pan and cook over low heat for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until tender.

3) Beat in apricot jam, Calvados, sugar, butter, and cinnamon. Raise heat and boil, stirring, until applesauce is thick enough to hold in a mass in the spoon.

4) Spread the applesauce in the pastry shell. Cover with a neat, closely overlapping layer of sliced apples arranged in concentric circles.

5) Bake in upper third of preheated oven for about 30 minutes, or until the apples have browned lightly and are tender. Slide the tart onto a serving dish and paint over it with a light coating of apricot glaze. Serve warm or cold with whipping cream or a scoop of ice cream.

Apricot Glaze

1/2 cup apricot preserves, forced through a sieve

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

Stir the strained apricot preserves and sugar over moderately high heat until thick enough to coat the spoon with a light film, and the last drops are sticky as they fall from the spoon (225-228 degrees on a candy thermometer). Do not boil past this point or the glaze will become brittle as it cools.

Apply the glaze while it is still warm. Unused glaze will keep indefinitely in a screw-top jar.