Put together a delicious bite to eat with Mary Berry's super simple and tasty dessert recipe. The iconic baking guru revealed her go-to method for making a French apple tart, which pairs exceptionally well with double cream or ice cream.

On a lovely warm evening, it's the ideal treat to tuck into – especially if you're enjoying yourself in the garden. As for the apples to use for this dessert, it's recommended to use Bramley apples as cooking apples. As for the apple slices for the topping, Braeburn apples will hold their shape while being baked.

French apple tart

Serves: four

Ingredients

For the pastry:

175g all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting

75g salted butter, cubed

One large egg yolk

For the filling:

900g cooking apples, quartered and chopped

55g salted butter

Four tbsp apricot jam

55g sugar, plus extra for sprinkling

Finely grated zest of half a lemon

Two (225g) dessert apples, peeled, quartered, and thinly sliced

Two tbsp fresh lemon juice

For the glaze

Four tbsp apricot jam

Method

Make the pastry

Rub the butter into the flour, then add the egg yolk, and chill the mixture for half hour.

Cook the cooking apples with butter and water. Sieve, then cook with the jam, sugar, and lemon zest until thick.

Baking

Roll the pastry, line the tin, and blind bake at 200C for 15 to 20 minutes. Then spread the apple purée in the pastry shell.

Top with apple slices, brush with lemon juice and sprinkle sugar over the top, then bake for 25 minutes until golden. Heat the apricot jam, the glaze the tart. Serve.

Served warm or at room temperature, a French apple tart is the kind of rustic dessert that manages to feel both elegant and deeply comforting.

With its thinly sliced apples arranged in beautiful spirals over buttery pastry and finished with a glossy glaze, it’s as pleasing to the eye as it is to the palate.

This tart offers a lovely contrast between the crisp edges of the apples and the soft, delicate texture beneath, all held together by a flaky, golden crust.

Whether paired with a spoonful of crème fraîche, ice cream or double cream, it’s a timeless treat that never fails to impress.