Nothing to Fear about Tarts

They say baking is difficult. Unlike a stir fry or a casserole, where there's boundless room for forgivable errors, baking is a game of precision, where weights matter more than volume, and small discrepancies will turn flaky into flabby, or delicate into deflated.

But let's not blow these little challenges out of proportion - plenty of cookbook authors and self-righteous baker snobs have done that enough already. Not everything related to flour-based treats has to be hard. Here's a weekday creation that I whipped up without any fear of failure, because it's so mind-numbingly simple - an apple tart.

Making pastry dough is like playing chess, making love, or rock climbing. Anyone can try it without much training, nobody's very good their first time, and few people are genuine experts. Don't be scared.Get yourself the following:

One cup of all-purpose flour

Three-quarters of a stick of butter, cut into tiny cubes and put in the freezer for 3-4 minutes

A quarter cup of ice water

A pinch of salt

Two apples, any kind you like, peeled and sliced up into thin little half-apple shaped discs

You won't need a food processor, or any weird expensive tools. Just a bowl, a fork, a rolling pin, and something to cook your tart in. I like the $3 two-piece 10-inch stainless steel one I got at the restaurant supply house. Some cookbooks will tell you that you don't even need a pan, but I find the folded-edge tarts such advice suggests to be just a tad too rustic. I'm also partial to the little ridged edges created by a tart pan.

Delicious ridges

Start off by dumping your flour into the bowl and rescuing your butter blocks from the cold. Using the fork, (your hands are too warm and would melt the butter) smush the butter and flour together until you have a bowlful of floured butter chunks. You'll need that water now, to turn your floured butter into dough. Pour it in slowly enough to allow the flour to soak up the water as it trickles into the mixture, but not so slowly that anything heats up. There's a reason these ingredients are cold; just keep the butter from melting and you'll be okay.

Once your dough is a dough, you can go ahead and get your hands involved, albeit briefly. Make a ball. That's it - just make a ball, wrap it in a towel or some plastic wrap, and pop it in the fridge. If you're like me, you were so eager to get started that you didn't bother cutting your apple slices yet. Now's a good time for that.

Wait at least an hour, then bring the ball back to the counter. Roll it out until it's large enough to cover your tart pan; that'll give you the right thickness. (If you're slow at this sort of thing, your dough might turn warm, sticky and troublesome, which is no good. A frying pan or jelly roll pan kept in the fridge for a few minutes beforehand will make a nice device for re-cooling your dough should such a thing happen. Simply dust your sad melty dough with a little flour and rest your flat cold thing on top, and presto - cold dough all over again.)

But I'm making this sound complicated, when in reality, you'll have invested all of 10 minutes actually working in the kitchen at this point. The rest is super-intuitive:

Bring the oven up to 400 degrees. Place the flat dough into the tart pan, press into the inside so that it's more of a carpet than a tent, then fill it up with apple slices. You can be clever with how you place them; a pile will work, but try concentric circles or rows if you feel compelled.

In my opinion, we have enough butter in this dish already, so I'll avoid any melted butter-sugar glazes to shine up the apples as they cook. But some color on the edges of the fruit wouldn't be so bad. My apricot jam, heated briefly in a saucepan to thin it out, added a nice crunchy glimmer and a little extra sweetness to the tart apples. Bake for 45 minutes before checking on it, and cook a little longer if the color hasn't darkened sufficiently.

And there you have it - a dessert easy enough for a Tuesday.

It's hard to make it ugly.