2 heaped tablespoons icing sugar
Method
Put your unopened tins of condensed milk in a high-sided pan,
covered with water. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer
constantly for about 3 hours with a lid on top. It's very important to
remember to keep checking the pan, as you don't want it to boil dry –
otherwise the tins will explode. It will give you the most amazing
toffee. Put the tins to one side and allow to cool.
First of all you need to make your pastry. Score down the length of the
vanilla pod, if using, and remove the seeds by scraping a knife down the
inside of each half (keep the pod for making vanilla sugar). Cream
together the butter, icing sugar and a small pinch of salt and then rub
in the flour, vanilla seeds, zest of the lemon and egg yolks – you can
do all this by hand or in a food processor. When the mixture looks like
coarse breadcrumbs, add the cold milk or water. Pat and gently work the
mixture together until you have a ball of dough, then flour it lightly
and roll it into a large sausage shape – don't work the pastry too much
otherwise it will become too elastic and chewy, not flaky and short as
you want it to be. Wrap the dough in clingfilm and place in the fridge
to rest for at least an hour. Remove it from the fridge, slice it up and
line a 28cm/11 inch tart mould with the slivers. Push them together,
then tidy up the sides by trimming off any excess. Place the tart mould
into the freezer for an hour.
Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/gas 4. Take the pastry case out of the
freezer and bake blind in the preheated oven for 15 minutes. Peel and
quarter the apples and remove the cores, then slice finely and toss in
the icing sugar. Remove the pastry base from the oven and smear the
caramel from both tins of condensed milk over it. Place the apples on
top and pour any remaining juices over. Cook at the bottom of the
preheated oven for about 40 minutes, to give you a crispy base and
bubbling toffee over the apples. Serve with vanilla ice cream.
Beautiful!
