Chef Jacques Pépin remembers nicely the well-known apple tart his mom made day by day as a dessert providing in her small Lyons restaurant, Le Pélican. Not like every other dough, hers achieved its tender, crumbly, ethereal texture from the mix of vegetable shortening, baking powder, and heat milk combined with flour. He hopes you get pleasure from this style he associates with fond recollections from his youth.

What units Mémé’s tart dough aside from traditional French doughs

French tart crusts are usually made with both pâte brisée, pâte sucrée, or pâte sablée; all three doughs are butter-based, and none comprise a leavening agent or milk. Whereas pâte brisée is akin to American pie dough however with a finer, extra uniform crumb, pâte sucrée and pâte sablée make use of eggs and are candy and cookie-like, the previous producing a agency, crisp crust and the latter a young, sandy, melt-in-your-mouth shortbread.

Mémé’s tart dough is a leaner, rustic model of pâte sablée, swapping the butter and eggs — each thought of luxurious components at one time — for humble shortening and milk plus baking powder with out sacrificing tenderness. The milk is barely warmed with a purpose to dissolve the baking powder and evenly hydrate the flour.

Can this tart be dressed up?

For a bit of further polish, brush the still-hot apples with apricot jam thinned by a little bit of water. For those who like, serve the tart with dollops of whipped cream or crème fraîche.

Notes from the Meals & Wine Take a look at Kitchen

• To protect the tender high quality of the dough, take care to not overwork it when mixing. If time permits, a quick chill within the fridge — half an hour or so — will make the dough simpler to deal with.
• Pépin likes Golden Scrumptious apples right here, a traditional alternative for French tarts. Honeycrisp, Jonagold, Jazz, and Envy apples are additionally nice choices.
• Gauge the tart’s doneness by the apples, not the crust. The fruit needs to be tender, effervescent barely, and caramelized on the edges.