METHOD:

Short Crust Pastry

1. Pre heat your oven to 200 ̊C

2. In a food processor place the dry ingredients as well as the butter, pulse the machine till the butter is broken into fine crumbs. Be careful not to over beat the mix as it will make the pastry tough and not crumbly as we want it to be.

3. Add the egg yolk and vanilla and mix till combined (If the dough is not well bound then add a teaspoon of ice water)

4 Wrap the pastry in plastic wrap and place in the fridge for about an hour (this will help the pastry to relax and firm up)

Filling & Topping

1. Take 10 of the apples a core them. Once cored dice the apples and simmer over a medium heat in a heavy based pot with a lid on and just enough water to avoid them from sticking or burning. Stir the apples occasional for about 20 minutes, remove from the heat and drain well in a colander. Take the other 6 Pink Lady apples, cut into quarters and cut out the core. Cut each 1⁄4 into six thin slices length wise trying to keep each slice the same in shape and thickness. Place the slices into a bowl of water.

2. Lightly dust a cool counter top with flour. Flatten out the pastry and start to roll it out with a rolling pin. Roll till the pastry is about a 1⁄4 of a centimeter thick. Grease the tin and please the pastry in.

3. Press the pastry into the corners and cut off any excess pastry hanging over the edge of the tin.

4. Spread cooked the apples in the pastry case and pat flat, fan out the sliced apples on top of the other apple compote. Make sure that the apples are overlapping each other otherwise there will be gaps in the tart when it is cooked.

5. Sprinkle sugar or caster sugar over the tart before baking. Place the tart in the oven and bake for about 25 minutes till golden brown and the pastry is cooked through.

6. Place on a cooling wrack and allow tocool. Remove from tart tin and serve at room temperature or warm in the oven before serving

(Do not reheat in the microwave, the pastry will go soggy).
Serve with cream or vanilla ice cream.