Apple Tartelette

I've had a craving for an afternoon sweet for the past couple of weeks. I'm usually satisfied with a cup of tea or coffee and a piece of fruit, but the sudden cold weather has made me long for sugar. A friend commented to me that I should write about some sweets and mentioned patee brisee, which reminded me of a recipe I used to make: Tartelette aux Pommes Lionel Poilane. I think I got the recipe from the NY Times years ago. I just made the tart, and it's so delicious that I ate 1/3 of it. It's loaded with butter, which of course is why it's so good. The final pastry is about 8 to 9 inches in diameter.

First make the pastry dough, which is sweet and flaky, with:
1 to 1/14 cups flour
7 Tbs unsalted butter, chilled and cut into pieces (I used a full 8 Tbs by mistake....yum)
2 teas sugar
1/8 teas salt
3 Tbs ice water

Put the flour, butter, sugar and salt into a bowl. The photo above shows a favorite old kitchen tool of mine, which is for cutting butter into flour. It works wonderfully well. My usual procedure is to cut the butter into small pieces with the tool, then switch to fingers, the best tool of all. Rub the butter into small bits in the flour, till it's like a very coarse meal (too fine and the dough won't be flaky enough). Add the water a tablespoon at a time, tossing it with cupped fingers, till all is damp and holds together. Flatten dough into a circle on a sheet of waxed paper and refrigerate for at least an hour.

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
2. Roll the dough into a 12 inch circle, place on a cookie sheet and refrigerate while cooking the apples.
3. Peel and core 4 Golden Delicious or Granny Smith apples (I used a mix of my orchard apples). Sprinkle them with 1/4 cup granulated sugar and 1 tablespoon brown sugar; cook in wide pan with 4 Tbs melted butter. Sautee them till lightly browned, about 15 minutes
4. Spoon the cooked apples on the pastry, fold it over and brush the edges with beaten egg.
5. Bake till golden, about 25 to 30 minutes