French Apple Tart

Pastry

• Place the flour and salt in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the blade. Pulse for a couple of times to blend. Add the diced butter and pulse about 10 times until the butter is in small pebbly bits, like the size of peas. With the motor running, pour the ice water in through the feeder tube and then pulse until the dough just comes together. Scrape the dough out onto a double strength sheet of plastic wrap. Pull the edges up and around dough, like a "kiss" and gently massage through the plastic until it comes together. Flatten into a rectangle shaped disk. Wrap tightly and chill for at least an hour. I sometime freeze this for 20 minutes if I'm in a rush or make it the day before.

Preparing your pan and Rolling out the Dough

• Lightly spray a half sheet pan (18×13) with cooking spray. Line pan with parchment paper, allowing about 2" to stick up all around the edges, taking care not to tear or pierce the paper. Lightly spray the paper and set the pan aside.

  Take your dough out of the fridge about 10 minutes before you want to roll it out. Place dough on a lightly floured surface and begin to roll it out from the center, out to the edges, turning the dough occasionally to make sure it is not sticking. Keep in mind you are going for the size of the paper you just cut out for the sheet pan, so keep expanding the dough evenly out top, bottom, left and right to achieve a rectangle slightly larger than your sheet pan. Since this is a big piece of dough, once you have your correct size, if the dough has gotten a bit soft you can slide it onto the back of a sheet pan or onto a thin cardboard and place in fridge to chill up a bit. A bench scraper comes in handy if you need to nudge it in places it may have stuck. When chilled a bit, you can carefully lay it into the prepared sheet pan. Or if you skipped that step, just gently roll the sheet around the rolling pin and lift onto your prepared sheet pan. You should ease it into the bottom of the pan and you should have an inch of extra dough to gently press onto the sides of the sheet pan.

  I like to do this part the day before and then place the sheet pan with the dough in it in the fridge overnight. This insures your dough (and the butter in it) are thoroughly chilled. You'll get a much better bake on your crust if you start with a well chilled dough.

Adding the apples, sugar and butter

• Preheat your oven to 400º. I like to put a baking steel, pizza stone or upturned empty sheet pan in the oven during the preheat. If you bake your tart on top of this piping hot surface it will insure the bottom of your crust bakes nice and golden–no soggy bottom!

  Peel and cored the apples. I usually have a bowl of water with a bit of lemon juice squeezed in it (acidulated water) nearby so I can drop the peeled apples in it while I work on the task of slicing and lining up the apples. This keeps the apples from browning. You can take your chilled sheet pan of dough out of the fridge now.

  Once the apples are peeled, working with one apple at a time, cut the apple in half, through the stem (vertically). Lay the apple on the flat side and cut each half into ¼ thick slices. Place overlapping slices either in straight lines or diagonally across the dough. Continue making rows until the pastry is lined with a single layer of overlapping slices.

  Sprinkle the entire half cup of sugar over the apples. Scatter the diced butter over the whole tart, taking care not to get any sugar or butter near the edges of the crust or paper. We are trying to prevent a lot of leaking and sticking to the pan.

  Bake for 30-40 minutes or until you can see that the pastry and apple edges are lightly browned. If you can rotate the pan midway through baking time, this is always helpful as our ovens usually have hot spots. Place tart on a rack to cool for about 10-15 minutes. You don't want to wait longer than this to ensure the bottom baking paper will release. Place a sheet of parchment paper on top of tart. Cover with a cardboard or upturned sheet pan and flip the tart over. Remove the parchment paper that the tart was baked on. Here is where you get to see your golden brown bottom crust (hopefully!). Select a platter for your tart and flip your tart over again. Warm the jam you selected to loosen it and stir in the liqueur. Brush the apples with this glaze.