Ingredients
Apple Filling
2 pounds Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, cut into 1/2-inch wedges
1/3 cup sugar
1 cup hard apple cider or dry white wine
Crust
8 cups fresh breadcrumbs made from crustless Italian or French bread (finely ground in processor)
1 cup hazelnuts, toasted, husked
10 tablespoons sugar, divided
4 teaspoons finely grated lemon peel
1/4 teaspoon (generous) salt
3/4 cup whole milk
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces
Powdered sugar (for dusting)
Whipped cream
Special Equipment
9-inch-diameter tart pan with removable bottom
Test-Kitchen Tip
To make breadcrumbs, cut crust off of a one-pound loaf of French bread. (Don't use country-style bread, which has a denser crumb). Tear crustless bread into chunks, then process chunks until finely ground (not to a powder, but to 1/16- to 1/8-inch size). Measure 8 cups of crumbs and toast according to directions below. In our testing, the crumb volume reduced considerably once toasted, amounting to just 3 cups. If yours do not reduce that much, still only use 3 cups of toasted crumbs for crust, reserving any remaining crumbs for another use.