Apple tart

This is a recipe from Nancy Birtwhistle, one of the Great British Baking Show winners.  She has a great Instagram feed, and a new cookbook just coming out.  The little apple roses are easy to make and really add a festive touch.  If you go to Nancy’s site she has a video showing how to make them.

For the roses
Slice a large apple into very thin slices. In a saucepan combine 2 c. Water and the juice of 1/2 a lemon.  Bring to a boil for 2 minutes.  Drain apples and allow to cool.  In a mini muffin pan put paper liners.  Whip the white of an egg briefly.
Brush one sid of one piece of apple with egg white. Place on the outside edge of one of the muffin cups, egg side facing towards the next piece you will put in .  Continue adding apple slice, slightly overlapping edges, gradually filling in the cup.  The egg whit side should always touch the outside..this glues the pieces together.  Continue filling cups.  Bake at 350 for 10 minutes.  Remove from oven an allow to cool.

For the crust
Combine
3/4 c. Flour
1 T. Powdered sugar
Pinch of salt
3 oz. butter
Cut butter into flour mixture until the size of peas. Then add in
3 T. Beaten egg
I find after a bit it easiest to just mix with you hands, squeezing the dough together.  Form into a ball and roll out on a floured surface. Place parchment in the bottom of a tart pan.  Spray with cooking spray.  Place dough into the pan, cut off top with edge of pan.  Poke hole in crust bottom. Refrigerate for 15 minutes.  Blind bake crust at 400 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

For the filling beat
3 eggs
2/3 c. Sugar
Zest of 1/2 a lemon
1 t. Lemon juice
1/4 t. Rose water extract (optional)
Stir in
2 apples, grated
Pour into crust.  Bake at 350 for 18 minutes.  Remove from oven.  Take apple roses out of paper cups and place on top of the pie.  You can cut leaf shapes from leftover pie dough also to add at this time.  Return to oven and bake another 12-15 minutes.  Remove from oven.  Brush roses with a little
Apricot jam
That has been warmed.