Taking the month of December off from Tuesday’s with Dorie was a necessity. Now I’m back in the swing of things with this beautiful French Apple Tart. For the recipe, check out this week’s host, Gaye of Laws of the Kitchen.

Start with the dough for the tart shell. I went with a combination of the dough on page 31 of Baking with Julia and my own recipe.

The key to any dough is to chill it. That lets it rest a bit because you know, being mixed and formed is stressful for dough.

This was my first tart. I don’t have a tart pan. I used my trusty old pyrex pie plate. You’ve got to blind bake it first. I used rice for the weight on top of parchment paper.

Bake the filling or the compote as the french say:  apples, sugar, flour and a dash of cinnamon on a jelly-roll pan until tender or “mashable” according to Leslie Mackie in this video of the tart being assembled. Fluffy bread crumbs are added to soak up any excess moisture from the apples.

This is mashed and added to the cooled tart shell. It’s ok if it’s a bit chunky. That adds “interest”.

The beauty of this tart is the mosaic of apples added on top of the filling.

Look at the glistening sugar! Oh yeah.

It’s baked and then taste tested.

This was fun to make, although I prefer a plain old apple pie for my apple cravings.