Apple Yeasted Sugar Tart -Fruit Week #1

Sick of soup already? I'm going to drown you with fruits this week. *Evil look*

Apples. I bought 2 granny smiths 3 months back (post done in Sept 2010). Yes. And one was still with me after the apple crumble.
Then I saw on technicolour kitchen (again!!!!) , an apple yeasted sugar tart, and it looked so so appealing to me. I knew I will be having some cream after the birthday cakes and oh yes!!! I definitely will make this very soon.

Today I finally used the 3 month old apple, and it still looked fine, just like the way it was when I bought it. Hahah!! The wax really does a good job preserving the apple. Can I use the wax on my face???? Hahaha!!!

My oven is always too hot for breads made with milk. It always browns too fast when baked according to the instructions and I always, always have to do it at 150C, which is far far lower than recommended. And today is no different. How hot you need to bake this with, you really have to gauge it yourself. I gave you the original temperature, so make your own decisions.

Apple Yeasted Sugar Tart
Recipe taken from Technicolor kitchen who sourced from "The Cook's Companion"

245gm all purpose flour
1 Tbsp sugar
Small pinch of salt
1 tsp yeast
120gm warm milk
1 egg, room temperature
28gm softened butter
2-3 eating apples (I used 1 large granny smith, and it was enough)
67gm demerara sugar (I used a mixture of demerara with brown sugar, as I ran out of demerara)
120ml whipping cream (I was left with 100gm of it, just used this)

Method: If you think I'm being too long winded here, please check out Technicolor Kitchen's version. Hers is a lot more "compact"
1. Combine flour, sugar, salt and instant yeast together in a mixing bowl. Make a well in the center.
2. Mix milk and egg together and pour into the well.
3. With a spoon, try to bring the flour in gradually and form a dough.
4. When everything has come together, knead in softened butter. Continue to knead (I did this by hand), it is very soft and sticky at the beginning and knead it (by pulling the dough from the bowl and putting it back, and pull it away and put it back cos the dough is the soft tacky type) until it no longer feels sticky, and a smooth dough is formed. *I used only my right hand to knead and kept my left hand clean. I used my left hand to test the dough’s stickiness as the right hand is always covered with the glob of dough. When the dough is ready, you rub the dough off your working hand, touch the dough with your working hand and it should not stick too, but it will still be very soft.
5. Then cover and let it proof for 30 minutes. Meanwhile prepare a loose bottomed 9 inch tart pan. Generously butter the pan.
6. Punch down the dough and give it a 1-2 minutes knead. Let it rest for 5-10 minutes before flattening it into the pan.
7. Let dough in pan proof for another 30 minutes.
8. Meanwhile, peel and cut apple(s). When 30 minutes if up, the dough looks puffy. Press the apples in and sprinkle the demerara sugar onto the apples.
9. Preheat the oven at 200(fan)/220C, the tart will continue to proof until the oven is ready and bake the tart for 10 minutes. (I found this too high for my oven, I think I’ll do it at 180C next time, cos my tart was nicely browned at 8 minutes)
10. Meanwhile beat the whipping cream to soft peaks.
11. Remove tart from oven and spoon the cream over the apples.
12. Return tart back to oven at 180(fan)/200C (I used 150C only) for 20 minutes or until the base of the tart sounds hollow when tapped.
13. Remove from oven and transfer tart to cooling rack, remove mould and let it cool on rack.
14. Slice only when tart turned warm to touch, if not the cream filling will be runny.

Verdict:
Darn it. This tasted so good. The baked cream topping is super!!! I wanted to make another one the next day to bring to my mom, but I ran out of cream. I don’t want to buy another large carton, cos I won’t be around for days.
This is the perfect "bread" for lazy kneaders. Even with the short kneading time, I assure you that you'll get the soft bread fresh from the oven due to the moisture from the apple being baked in the bread. It's best eaten warm, but then, it's still not hard later. Well, not as soft as fresh and warm, but acceptable even to the next day, but please keep air tight.
But for those who are thinking of trying this out, I suggest you mix the topping sugar with some cinnamon or scraped vanilla. That’s the only miss about this yeasted tart, if not it’ll be perfect!!!