Apple Tart

Pie Crust

8 ounces sifted flour and 1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
3 ounces unsalted butter, cool, but not hard
5 to 6 tablespoons water

Sift the flour, salt and sugar onto a pastry board.  Add the butter, cut up into small peices about the size of an olive pit.
	Working very quickly and using only the tips of your fingers, mix the flour and butter together with little pinching motions.  The mixture must be rather coarse; don’t worry about making it completely smooth at this point.  To avoid overworking the dough, do not remove it from your fingers by rubbing your hands together; use a dough scrapper instead.
	Sprinkle enough water over the the dough to moisten it, but not to make it wet and mushy.  Knead gently to make the dough smooth.  Do not work the dough anyomore than necessary - too much kneading will make it tough.  Wrap in foil and refridgerate for 1 hour.
	Flour a pastry board lightly and place the dough on it.  If it is too stiff to rool properly, beat it a bit with the rolling pin to flatten out the mass of dough.  Roll out the dough into a circle 13 inches in diameter.
	Preheat oven to 350° F.
	Fit the dough into an 11 - x - 1-1/2 inch tart shell.
Prick the bottom with a fork, and weigh it down with aluminum baking pellets or dry beans.  Bake 15 minutes.  Remove the pellets and bake 12 minutes more to dry out the bottom.
Makes one 11 inch pir crust.

Apple Tart

7 Granny Smith apples (about 3-1/2 pounds) or any hard cooking apple.
8 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup sugar
	Freshly ground pepper
2 teaspoons Calvados or Applejack
1/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup heavy cream

Prepare the crust and prebake as indicated in the preceeding recipe.
	Peel, core, and slice the apples crosswise into 3/4 inch slices.  Divide the slices into 2 batches for ease of cooking.
	Melt 4 tablespoons of the butter in a heavy skillet over high heat.  Add half the apples and sugar and 1 or 2 grindings of pepper.  Sauté, shaking the pan every so often to keep the apples from scorching.  Stir them gently with a metal spatula.
	The apples will render liquids which will evaporate.  Then they will caramelize.  The amount of time needed to achieve the caramelized stage depends greatly on the apples and on the skillet you use.  The apples will be soft, but not mushy when they are caramelized.
	Remove the first batch of apples when it has caramelized, and sprinkle 1 teaspoon Calvados over it.  Clean the skillet.  Repeat the the procedure with the second batch of apples.  Set the apples aside.
	Mix the eggs and sugar and whisk in the cream.

Assembly

	Arrange the apples in a spiral pattern in the pre-baked pie shell.  Ladle the egg mixture over the apples.
Bake in a 375° F. oven for 35 minutes or until the top is golden brown and the custard is set. Serve warm.