Bertus Basson’s Tannie Hetta’s apple tart

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Ingredients

4 large green apples, peeled, cored and quartered or 1 x 385g can unsweetened pie apple slices
750 ml water
250 ml white wine
150 g sugar
1 cinnamon stick
2 cardamom pods, crushed
2 star anise
3 eggs
70 g milk
60 g butter
140 g sugar
130 g flour
10 g baking powder
pinch of salt
250 g cream
250 g sugar
1 vanilla pod, scraped

Cooking Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.

2. In a pot, bring the water, wine, sugar, cinnamon, cardamom and star anise to the boil. Add the apples and weigh them down with a saucer so they remain under the syrup. Poach for 15 minutes. Some kinds of apples will cook faster than others, so be careful not to overcook. Remove them from the heat and leave to cool and infuse in the poaching syrup. If you are using canned apples, skip this step.

3. Whisk the eggs and milk together. Cream the butter and sugar together until pale. Sift the dry ingredients together into a bowl. Now beat in a bit of egg mixture, then some butter mixture, then more egg, alternating between the two. Beat between each addition until it is all combined.

4. Pour the resulting smooth batter into your baking tin. Lay the cooled apples on top and push them into the batter. Bake at 180°C, until golden brown (about 30 minutes).

5. While the apple tart is in the oven, combine the cream, sugar and vanilla seeds in a small saucepan. Simmer until all the sugar is dissolved. Pour the resulting hot syrup over the apple tart as it comes out of the oven.

6. Serve with cream, ice cream or custard.

Cook’s note: This was Bertus’s mother’s recipe and is often on the menu at his restaurants.

Photograph: Toby Murphy
Production: Khanya Mzongwana