Tarte Aux Pommes (Happy 100th, Julia!)

The finished product

      I saw online that today would have been Julia Child's 100th birthday, and so I figured I oughta bust out one of her books and make something in her honor.  The wife didn't seem to mind the idea of a bit of French cooking, either.  I decided to go with an apple tart that I've made a couple of times before, but with a couple of minor modifications.  I won't post the whole recipe here, but the ingredients are as follows.

Crust in the making...

   -Pâte Brisée Fine ( Julia's recipe for slightly sweet pastry dough)
   -Unsweetened applesauce, preferably home-made
   -granulated sugar
   -3 TBSP Grand Marnier
   -Grated lemon peel
   -Butter
   -Apples
   -Apricot-pineapple jam

     After partially baking the crust, you mix together and cook down the sugar, liqueur, sugar, lemon peel, and a bit of butter until it thickens (I had to use a bit of cornstarch as well).  You pour that into the crust, and bake for about a half an hour.  After it cools, boil the jam, a bit of sugar, and a touch more Grand Marnier and glaze the top of the tart.  It's not exactly health, but pretty freakin' tasty.  We deviated from the original recipe in using Grand Marnier instead of straight up cognac or rum, as the flavors meld nicely and my parents were nice enough to snag a small bottle for my wife for Christmas.  Also, the original recipe calls for plain apricot jam, but we had apricot-pineapple, so that's what we used.  All in all, this turned out pretty well.

The full recipe can be found in Julia Child's The French Chef Cookbook, p. 181-184.  Not a bad little book if you're looking for a bit of French inspiration!