We took a long weekend to Switzerland to stay with our friends for a bit of skiing. While there I was browsing through one of their recipe books.

Also while there, I took a tumble on the first day, skidded on my face (with my poor chin bearing the brunt of it), and ended up with a spot of whiplash. Sad times. The next day, I was feeling a little sorry for myself, with limited movement in my neck, so we took ourselves on a nice walk to see the view across the valley.

(NB. Yes I know, it looks very much like alpine spring! There is still snow, it covers the pistes, but is slushy in parts)

Also stopped off at the shop to get some bits and pieces so that we could bake something from the book.

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Torta Gegia Recipe – taken from Winter in the Alps, Food by the Fireside by Manuela Darling-Gansser (NB. Lovely book, filled with recipes, history, and tales from the alps)

Ingredients

Pastry
250g plain flour
3tbsp caster sugar
150g unsalted butter
1 egg
Grated zest of 1 lemon
1/4 tsp salt

Filling
245g caster sugar
50g unsalted butter
3-4 medium apples
Juice of 1 lemon
1tsp ground cinnamon

Method

Preheat the oven to 200C/400F.

Put the pastry ingredients in a food processor and pulse until they form a dough. Refridgerate for about 1 hour.

(erm… We cheated. In the absence of a good processor, and having other things to do…

….ready made pastry. I know. It’s shameful)

In the meantime prepare the filling.

Put a circle of greaseproof paper into a 28cm/11in pie dish (the paper should be large enough to come up the sides).
Spread 200g of sugar evenly over the paper and bake until it caramelises to light brown.
Without removing the dish from the oven, add the butter, which will melt into the sugar.

Peel and core the apples, and cut them thinly. Toss the slices in the lemon juice, cinnamon and the remaining sugar.

Take the pie dish out of the oven. Lay the apples in an even pattern over the caramelised sugar and butter, covering the whole dish. Put back in the oven for 20 minutes.

Roll the pastry into a circle a little larger than the pie dish. Take the pie dish out of the oven. Gently press the pastry over the apples and trim off any excess. Return the dish to the oven for another 20 minutes, or until the pastry is golden.

As soon as the tart is cooked, cover the dish with a large upturned serving plate and, using tea towels or oven mitts, invert the tart into the plate. Peel off the layer of paper.

Let the tart cool a little before serving (with whipped cream or icecream).

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YUM.

update 27.03.2012: I revisited this recipe to take into work for post holiday goodies. I made the pastry this time, the lemon zest makes it extra tasty. Also I swapped out the cinnamon for ginger (2 tsp) to appease the cinnamon haters of the lab! Everyone in the lab very much enjoyed it, especially with a bit of extra thick squirty cream! Yummy

I used the leftover pastry to make some little tarts…..

(orange marmalade, grapefruit marmalade, honey)