125 g Plain flour
50 g Fine oatmeal
75 g Caster sugar
1/4 ts Salt
125 g Butter
Finely grated zest of 1
-orange
1 tb Freshly squeezed orange
-juice; (1 to 2)
750 g Dessert apples
4 tb Lemon juice
2 tb Fine-cut orange marmalade
2 tb Clear honey
Seeds of 4-5 cardamom pods;
-ground finely
To make the pastry, put the flour, oatmeal, caster sugar and salt into a
food processor and whizz just once to mix. Cut the butter into small
pieces, add to the flour mixture in the food processor and whizz again only
briefly, just until the mixture resembles rough breadcrumbs.
Add the finely grated orange zest and, with the motor running, pour in
enough orange juice, whizzing very briefly, for the dough to begin to stick
together. Pat the pastry into a ball, cover it with clingfilm and leave it
in the refrigerator to chill while you prepare the apples.
Smear the base and sides of a 19-20cm sandwich tin with a little butter
(don’t use a tin with a loose base) and preheat the oven to 200C/400F/gas
6. Peel the apples and using a very sharp knife, cut each apple in half and
cut out the cores. Slice the apples thinly in half moon slices, putting the
slices into a bowl and sprinkling them immediately with lemon juice as you
cut them to prevent them discolouring. Put the marmalade and honey into a
bowl with the ground cardamom seeds, stir together and spread the mixture
over the bottom of the buttered sandwich tin. Next, arrange the apple
slices neatly overlapping in the tin.
Take the pastry from the refrigerator and , using a well floured rolling
pin, roll it out very lightly on a floured board to the size of the cake
tin.
Carefully roll back the pastry over the rolling pin and place it on top of
the apples in the tin. If the pastry should break at all, don’t worry,
simply press it together again. Press the overlapping pastry edge down into
the sides of the tin and pierce two holes in the top to allow the steam to
escape.
Cook the tart in the centre of the preheated oven for 25 minutes, then turn
down to 160C/325F/gas 3 for 30 minutes. Finally, turn off the oven, open
the door slightly and leave the tart in the oven for a further 10-15
minutes.
To serve, slide a knife around the edges of the tin and carefully turn the
tart out on to a flat serving plate. Serve the tart warm with creme
fraiche, cream or natural yoghurt.
Yields
8 servings