Apple Tart To Survive Autumn

  When the temperatures outside drop rapidly, so is my spirit. I understand that people love Autumn. I really do.  It can be beautiful indeed. Thousands of dancing  leaves, thin and crisp air, long walks with the dog in a morning mist and of course the colours right?  What about snuggling up in front of the fire?

 The way I see it though is not pretty. I am faced with constant rain and wind (that's 6 months of feeling freezing for me), the colours are only in shades of grey, it gets dark after 4pm and mentioning  size of spiders crawling into my house is not necessary.

There is one thing which helps me survive these awful times though.
  It's food of course!
Sweet potatoes, winter squashes, apples, pears, cranberries, pumpkins, hot chocolate etc. One-pot stew and apple tart is a must to survive what is coming!

APPLE TART CRUST

150g plain flour
50g ground almonds
30g icing sugar
100g unsalted butter
1 egg
pinch of salt

Put all the ingredients into food processor and create the dough. Do not overwork it. Wrap in a cling film and put it in the fridge for at least 1h. Prepare the tin and put it again in the fridge for another 1h (with the dough). Blind bake it in 180C for about 15min.Take it out of the oven and line with the filling.

CREME PATISSERIE

250ml milk
1tsp vanilla extract
50g caster sugar
3 egg yolks
10g plain flour
10g corn flour

Bring the milk with vanilla to boil In a meanwhile mix egg yolks, sugar and both flours together. Now pour 1/3 of milk into egg mix, whisk vigorously. Then pour the whole think back to the pan with milk and continue whisking over a medium heat until pastry cream thickens for at least 2 min. Cool it down.

APPLES 3-4 it will depend on size. Any apples you have got on hand will do.

Spread pastry cream on tart shell, top it up with apple thins and sprinkle with sugar and some cinnamon. It needs to go back to the oven for another 20 min or until the pastry will be golden brown and apples will get some colour as well. I used a mandolin for slicing the apples which made everything so much quicker.
Big dollop of whipped cream on the top of it makes the horrible weather so much more manageable :)