Step 1

Toss sugar, salt, and 1 cup plus 2 Tbsp. flour in a large bowl with your fingers to combine. Add butter and toss to coat with dry ingredients.

Step 2

Turn out mixture onto a lightly floured surface. Using a rolling pin, flatten butter pieces into long, thin sheets. This may take a few passes to achieve; flour pin as needed and use a bench scraper or metal spatula to loosen any butter pieces that want to stick to the surface.

Step 3

Once all of the mixture is in flexible, thin pieces, use bench scraper to gather it up and return to bowl. Drizzle 3 Tbsp. ice water over. Using a fork, mix in water until evenly dispersed. The dough may break into smaller pieces as you do this, which is fine.

Step 4

Turn out dough back onto surface and loosely gather into a rectangular shape with a short end toward you. Roll out dough until it flattens. Because dough will be moist, more of it may stick to the pin this time. Scrape pin clean when this happens, and lightly dust pin, surface, and dough with flour as needed.

Step 5

Using bench scraper to help you, bring top third of dough up and over middle section, then bring bottom third up and over the middle as well (like folding a letter). The dough will be a floury, crumbly mess; you just want to achieve a loose stack at this point.

Step 6

Rotate dough 90° and repeat rolling out and folding, gathering loose bits into the center to incorporate. The dough should be a little more manageable now, but will still be very dry and crumbly on the long sides. Rotate dough 90° and repeat rolling out and folding a third time. The dough should be mostly together by now and will look smooth, matte, and creamy almost everywhere, though the edges may still be dry and crumbly. If needed, repeat one more roll-and-fold. Form dough into a disk, wrap in plastic, and chill at least 30 minutes.

Step 7

Do Ahead: Dough can be made 2 days ahead. Keep chilled, or freeze up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator before using.

Step 8

Preheat oven to 400°. Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface to a round about ⅛" thick. Roll onto pin, brushing excess flour from underside if needed, then unfurl into tart pan. Working around the circumference, lift up dough, then press lightly into pan, working into corners and making sure dough is making good contact across bottom surface. Using your fingers, press dough against sides of pan, letting excess hang over. Roll pin across top of pan edges to shear extra dough cleanly off. (Dust dough scraps with sugar and bake into little misshapen cookies, if you want!) Chill crust until ready to use.

Step 9

Cook butter in a small saucepan over medium heat until butter foams, then browns, 3–5 minutes. Set brown butter aside.

Step 10

Core apples and slice crosswise into rings (do not peel them unless you absolutely insist).Transfer to a medium bowl. Add lemon juice, sugar, and salt and toss to coat. Arrange apples into chilled crust in rough concentric circles without making a big mound in the center (they should come up about ½" over top of pan; snack on any extra pieces left in the bowl). Brush or drizzle brown butter over apples (use all of it). Place tart on a rimmed baking sheet and bake, rotating pan halfway through, until crust is deep golden brown and apples on surface are softened and starting to take on a little color at edges, 55–65 minutes. Do not underbake. Let tart cool on baking sheet until warm, then remove ring and cut into wedges.

Step 11

Serve each wedge with a spoonful of crème fraîche, if desired.