This is an apple tart for taking the chill off a cold autumnal evening. It comes from Normandy, where the salty wind off the sea can whip right through the warmest clothes. Normandy, France’s dairy land, where the fresh cream is as sublime as it comes. Normandy, where apple trees dot the countryside, and the apple tart is as French as, well, apple pie is American.
Tarte aux pommes normande / Normandy apple tart
In this tart, the apples are blanketed in a sauce of fresh cream, eggs and sugar. The result, as my student Louise would say, is simply divine. If you want to go all the way with this experience, you can serve yourself a little glass of calva with your slice of apple tart. Calva being calvados, the apple brandy that also hails from Normandy. Sitting by the fireside, enjoying the tart, you can almost hear the lapping of the Normandy waves.
Site news: Beginning next week I will be posting recipes on Tuesdays and Fridays instead of every day. If there are any particular recipes you would like to see in the weeks ahead, please let me know via the contact page. Although blogging about French cuisine is still a new experience for me, I am feeling cautiously upbeat about the response — in its two months in existence, The Everyday French Chef has had 6,000 views, and interest just seems to keep growing. Yesterday somebody tweeted about the site, sending 300 viewers our way, mainly to the Shaun Kelly interview that ran last week. A young Palestinian from Gaza is among our followers, who now cover the globe from Australia to the Middle East to Europe and on to the States and Canada, all the way to Washington state. What can I say? This is really fun. I’m excited about it, and hope you are too. — Meg Bortin
