Apple Frangipane Tart

Mmmm I love winter time. It's my favorite time of the year, when the air is just a bit chilly and the leaves have started to fall. Lately though, living in California, has provided little winter for me! So sad. Anyways this tart perfectly pairs with this season.

Tartlette originally makes this tart mini-sized but I decided to make one large tart for my family Christmas party. Though it does seem like there are a lot of steps, once broken apart, this tart was incredibly easy to put together. I made the crust one day and pre-baked it, then another day filled it with the frangipane and baked it, and baked and assembled the apples. This really is a gorgeous tart. It was a big hit too! The combination of honey-roasted apples and almond was just delicious! Make sure not to over bake the frangipane though, because you want it to be moist!

I arranged mine like a flower, but you can do it any other way:

I used Granny Smith Apples:

Apples and fall: the perfect combination

Apple Frangipane Tart

Yields: 8 servings

Adapted from original recipe, which can be found here.

For the sable dough:

1 stick butter, room temperature

3/4 cup powdered sugar

1 large egg

1 1/2 cups flour

2 tbsn. cornstarch

pinch of salt

For the frangipane cream:

1 stick butter, softened

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 cup ground almond

seeds from 1 vanilla bean or 2 tsp. vanilla paste or extract

2 eggs

1/4 cup heavy cream

For the honey roasted apples:

4 medium apples

1/2 cup honey

2 tbsn. apricot jam or orange marmalade + 1 tbsn. water, microwaved for 15 seconds (to glaze, optional)

To make the dough, in a mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and mix until combined. Add the flour, cornstarch and salt and mix briefly to incorporate. Dump the whole mixture onto a lightly floured board and gather dough into a smooth ball. Do not work dough while in mixture or it will toughen up. Flatten dough into a disk and wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour. When dough is nice and cold, roll out on a lightly floured board or in between sheets of plastic. You need half the amount of dough to make the tartelettes. Other half can be kept in the fridge for up to 5 days or frozen, well wrapped for 3 months. Cut out rounds with a 3 inch pastry ring. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake at 350 F for 8 - 10 minutes. Let cool.

Preheat oven to 350 F. Peel, core and cut the apples in thin slices. Lay them on a couple of parchment paper lined baking sheets and drizzle all with honey. Bake for 10 - 15 minutes until golden, let cool.

Place butter, sugar, almond powder, vanilla and eggs in a large bowl and whisk until smooth. Add cream and stir it in instead of whisking so you don't emulsify it. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Place 8 baked rounds of dough into 8 pastry rings, divide the cream evenly among the rings and bake for 20 minutes at 350 F. Let cool. Once cool, remove tarts from rings and arrange apples decoratively on top. If desired, you can glaze the tart. Enjoy!

Close up of the apples:

An apple a day keeps the doctor away: