toffee apple tart

method

This is a fantastic dessert that I love to make for friends as they can’t get enough of it. The combination of toffee and apples is a fairground classic but feel free to try it with pears, bananas, even strawberries.

Put your unopened cans of condensed milk in a high-sided pan, covered with water. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer constantly for about 3 hours with a lid on top. It’s very important to remember to keep checking the pan, as you don’t want it to boil dry – otherwise the cans
will explode. It will give you the most amazing toffee. Put the cans to one side and allow to cool.

First of all you need to make your pastry. Score down the length of the vanilla bean, if using, and remove the seeds by scraping a knife down the inside of each half (keep the pod for making vanilla sugar). Cream together the butter, powdered sugar and salt and then rub in the flour, vanilla
seeds, lemon zest and egg yolks – you can do all this by hand or in a food processor. When the mixture looks like coarse breadcrumbs, add the cold milk or water. Pat and gently work the mixture together until you have a ball of dough, then flour it lightly and roll it into a large sausage shape – don’t work the pastry too much otherwise it will become too elastic and chewy, not flaky and short
as you want it to be. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and place in the fridge to rest for at least an hour. Remove it from the fridge, slice it up and line an 11 inch tart mold with the slivers. Push them together, then tidy up the sides by trimming off any excess. Place the tart mold in the freezer for an hour.

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Peel and quarter the apples and remove the cores, then slice finely and toss in the powdered sugar. Remove the pastry base from the freezer and smear the caramel from both cans of condensed milk over it. Place the apples on top and pour any remaining juices over.
Cook at the bottom of the preheated oven for about 40 minutes, to give you a crispy base and bubbling toffee over the apples. Serve with vanilla ice cream. Beautiful!

serves: 6-8

ingredients

FOR THE SHORTCRUST PASTRY
• optional: 1 vanilla bean
• 5 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 2 scant cups flour
• zest of ¹⁄₂ a lemon
• 2 egg yolks
• 2 tablespoons cold milk or water

FOR THE FILLING
• 2 14oz cans of condensed milk or
• 2 jars of Merchant Gourmet Dulce de Leche toffee
• 4 medium-sized cooking apples
• 2 heaping tablespoons powdered sugar