Speak sweetly like apple tart
The book: The Language of Food by Annabel Abbs.
Genre: Historical fiction based on fact.
Publication date: 2022.
The bake: French apple tart.
What’s the story?
I must say, I judged this book solely by its gorgeous cover and irresistible title. The Language of Food by Annabel Abbs (published in 2022 by Simon & Schuster) seemed to be calling my name from its place on the bookshelf. This book tells the true story of one of the world’s first food writers, Eliza Acton. In spite of not being a domestic goddess, she was commissioned in 1835 to write a cookery book. A young woman named Ann Kirby helped Acton create the first true cookbook called Modern Cookery for Private Families (1845). Eliza was a woman ahead of her time and had a complicated personality. She was a talented writer and clearly not someone to back away from a challenge.
Why read it?
This book is about food, but also about friendship and surviving life’s challenges. Eliza had to struggle to get her voice heard in a man’s world. She had to show skill and determination to be successful in a sphere totally unknown to her. Ann Kirby comes from unimaginable hardship and poverty. She discovers something precious when she starts working with Eliza in the kitchen. I love the descriptions of the dishes they cook – Abbs’s writing is like poetry. I had to close my eyes and savour her descriptions many times during the reading of this book. As a foodie and food writer myself, I absolutely gobbled up this story.
Learning something new is always a pleasant experience. I’d never heard of Eliza Acton before reading The Language of Food. She lived (and cooked) almost 200 years ago, but she struggled with many of the same things women still have to deal with. Being underestimated and undervalued is nothing new. Read this book if you love food, history and writing so good it will make you want to tie on an apron and get cooking.
Pair it with: French apple tart
Acton spent some time in France, which added flavour to her recipes. It also added some spice to her life story (but I’ll leave that as a secret to be discovered in the book). I therefore paired this book with a fabulous French apple tart made with fresh apple slices and homemade frangipane. This tart is elegant, as I imagine Eliza Acton to have been. It has many layers of flavour to delight the senses. Serve it at room temperature or slightly warmer with some gloriously creamy vanilla ice cream or chantilly cream.
Don’t be daunted by making your own pastry or creating the fan shape with the apple slices. It’s really not a difficult bake. Like Eliza Acton, you’ll discover the joy in creating something from scratch that is so delicious you want to tell everyone about it!
Tarte aux pommes (French apple tart)
8-10
servings3
hours55
minutesIngredients
For the Pâte Sucrée:
200 grams (1 ½ cups + 2 tablespoons) flour, plus extra for dusting
75 grams (¼ cup + 2 tablespoons) sugar
Pinch salt
90 grams (6 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon) cold unsalted butter, diced
2 large egg yolks, at room temperature
2 to 3 tablespoons cold waterFor the frangipane filling:
100 grams (7 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
50 grams (¼ cup) sugar
100 grams (1 cup + 4 teaspoons) ground almonds or almond meal
2 large eggs, at room temperatureFor the apple filling:
2 large Granny Smith apples peeled, cored, quartered, and thinly sliced about ⅛-inch thick
15 grams (1 tablespoon) melted butter
1 egg, beaten (you won’t use the entire thing)For the glaze:
2 tablespoons apricot jam
1 tablespoon water
Directions
- To make the pâte sucrée: Add the flour, sugar and salt to the bowl of a food processor. Pulse to combine. Add the butter and pulse again until the mixture is crumbly. Add the egg yolks and pulse again until combined. While the food processor is running, slowly add the water starting with 2 tablespoons and adding a 3rd if needed, until the mixture just comes together.
Remove the dough to a work surface and knead gently to bring it together into a smooth ball. Shape the pastry into a flat disc and wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 45 minutes (alternatively, it can be frozen and then thawed in the refrigerator when needed). - Roll out the chilled pastry on a lightly floured surface until it is about ⅛-inch thick. Carefully wrap the pastry around the rolling pin and then gently unfold it over a 9-inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom. Gently fit the pastry into the pan against the sides (without stretching it) and trim away excess dough. Prick the bottom with a fork. Place the crust in the fridge for at least 1 ½ hours to stop shrinkage when baking.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C. Place the oven rack in the centre of the oven. Line a baking sheet with foil or parchment paper in case of leaks.
Remove the chilled crust from the fridge, line the pastry with parchment paper and fill with pie weights or uncooked beans or rice. Blind bake the crust for 10 minutes. Remove the parchment and weights and continue to bake for another 10 to 12 minutes or until pale golden. Remove from the oven and cool on a rack for about 15 minutes until room temperature. - For the frangipane filling: In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter and sugar until light and creamy, a couple of minutes. Then add the ground almonds and mix until smooth. Finally add the eggs and combine well, scraping down the sides periodically to ensure the mixture is smooth. Spoon the frangipane filling into the tart shell, smoothing it out evenly.
Starting from the outside, arrange the apple slices in a spiral pattern, overlapping one another until the entire surface is covered.
Place the tart onto the prepared baking sheet and transfer to the 350°F (180°C) oven. Bake for 5 minutes, and then brush the top with the melted butter (use a blotting motion so you don’t displace the apple slices from how they are arranged).
Continue to bake for about 40 minutes longer until the filling begins to brown at the edges. Then lightly brush the top with some of the beaten egg and return to the oven for another 10 to 15 minutes (giving you a total of about 50 to 55 minutes of baking time).- To make the glaze, heat the apricot jam and water in a small pan and strain into a bowl. Remove the tart from the oven and, while still warm, use a pastry brush to coat the apples with the warm glaze. Serve either warm or at room temperature plain, with crème fraiche or vanilla ice cream.
Recipe source: mission-food.com.
