At last British apples are in season once more. Picking begins around August and ends in October.

We had our first taste of new season apples recently (Discovery variety) and my husband exclaimed "Mmm, this really tastes how an apple should"!

A rather odd comment you may think but for the best part of the year, we are subjected to varieties from France and New Zealand as the UK simply cannot grow enough to meet demand - such imported apples look good, but greatly lack in taste.

Apples are so versatile and can be used in endless sweet and savoury dishes.

They combine very well with game and pork. A classic combination is of course with another seasonal favourite, the blackberry - perfect for crumbles.

Here is a recipe for an apple tart. I know that there are endless apple tart recipes around and that everyone has their favourite but this is slightly different in that the topping is made from grated frozen pastry to give a lovely crumbly effect.

AUTUMN APPLE TART Ingredients (makes one 20cm diameter tart)

For the pastry: 250g plain flour 175g butter, cut into small pieces 25g ground almonds 75g caster sugar finely grated zest of lemon 1 egg yolk 2 tbsp milk

For the filling: 4 cooking apples (medium size) 50g sultanas 25g caster sugar Pinch of ground cinnamon

Method

1 To make the pastry:

  • Place the flour into a large bowl and rub in the butter using your fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
  • Stir in the ground almonds, caster sugar and lemon zest.
  • Bind the mixture together with the egg yolk and milk until a soft dough forms.
  • Take two thirds of the pastry, wrap in clingfilm and leave to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.
  • Wrap the remaining third of pastry in clingfilm and place in the freezer.

2 Preheat the oven to 175 C.

3 Roll out the pastry dough on a lightly floured surface (until it is only a few millimetres thick). Place a flan ring on a baking tray and line neatly with pastry. Place in the fridge until needed (it may change colour slightly, but don't worry).

4 Peel the apples and coarsely grate them into a dish. Squeeze the excess juice from them and pour it away.

5 Combine together the grated apple with the remaining ingredients. Fill the prepared ring with the mixture.

6 Remove the dough from the freezer and coarsely grate(don't worry about using every scrap of pastry as it can be difficult to grate when you get near the end). Sprinkle this over the filling in the flan ring, ensuring that all the apple is well covered.

7 Bake for 30-40 minutes or until the pastry is golden and crisp.

To serve Place the tart on a large plate and dust with icing sugar. Serve warm with softly whipped cream, vanilla ice cream or crme anglaise. The tart is also good served at room temperature. If you wish, serve it with a chunk of Wensleydale cheese - according to the old Yorkshire saying "apple pie without cheese is like a kiss without a squeeze!".

Note For the best flavours use Bramley apples or a mixture of cooking and eating apples(Granny Smith's).

It is best to work with the pastry quite quickly as it soon becomes rather sticky!

The tart freezes well once baked.

The sultanas and cinnamon can be optional, and adjust the amount of sugar to your taste.