APPLES

APPLE ROSE TART

Possibly it was American author Rose Levy Beranbaum who first came up with the ingenious concept of using thin apple slices to produce a full-blown rose when cooked. Instead of one large rose tart you could make smaller versions using muffin tins. Either way, this is as pretty as a picture and has an addictive apple taste.

PREPARATION TIME: 30 minutes | COOKING TIME: 35 minutes | SERVES: 8

PASTRY

1 cup (100 g/3½ fl oz) fine almond meal

½ cup (80 g/2¾ oz) rice flour

½ cup (65 g/2¼ oz) arrowroot

½ teaspoon sea salt flakes

125 g (4½ oz) very cold butter, diced

1 egg, whisked

6 medium apples, unpeeled

2 tablespoons lemon juice

¹ /₃ cup (75 g/2¾ oz) caster (superfine) sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

4 tablespoons apricot, raspberry, plum or cherry jam, to glaze

To make the pastry, put the almond meal, rice flour, arrowroot, salt and cold butter in a food processor and pulse-blend until the mixture forms small lumps. Add the egg and pulse-blend again, until the dough just clumps. Form the dough into a ball, flatten into a disk, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Roll the pastry out using rice flour or arrowroot to prevent sticking (or roll between sheets of baking paper) and line a 22 cm (8½ in) loose-based flan (tart) tin. Trim the edges and refrigerate for 20 minutes.

While the pastry chills, cut the apples into quarters, core and slice them as thinly as possible so that you can bend them slightly without breaking the slice. Put the apple slices in a large bowl, add the lemon juice, sugar and cinnamon and very gently toss.

Preheat the oven to 210°C/410°F (fan 190°C/410°F).

Starting from the outside of the pastry case, arrange the apple slices curved unpeeled side up, around the pastry in circles and working into the centre with each slice overlapping the last one. The circles should look like tightly packed petals of a rose with very little space between them because the apples will shrink a little when cooked.

Bake the tart for about 25 minutes, or until the apples are cooked and the pastry crisp and golden.

Heat the jam in a small saucepan until syrupy then brush over the top of the apples. Continue cooking the tart for a further 10 minutes, or until the glaze is bubbling. Cool before serving.