Tart with Almond Cream, Green Apples and Cinnamon
Ingredients:
Tart Pastry / Pate Sucree
240g unsalted butter cold and straight from the fridge
180g icing sugar
60g ground almonds
100g whole eggs
470g plain flour (300g + 170g separated)
Vanilla paste, extract or powder to taste
1 pinch of salt
Almond cream
225g unsalted butter at room temperature
250g sugar
Vanilla paste, extract or powder to taste
250g ground almonds
175g whole eggs
125g plain flour
6 small apples (depending on the apples may need 1-2 more or less).
These need to be cored and finely sliced.
TIP: Keep them in water & lemon juice to prevent them going brown if you prepare them in advance, but don’t forget to dry them thoroughly on kitchen paper before use.
Method:
This recipe uses a stand mixer but you can use a hand mixer if you prefer.
We start with the Tart Patry/Pate Sucree
1. Prepare a 20cm tart pan by well greasing the bottom and walls with butter and then either sprinkle sugar or flour on top of that butter. Personally I prefer using sugar as it gives an extra crunch and also looks better.
2. Put all the ingredients for the tart pastry in the stand mixer (except the 170 grams of flour) and beat them with the ‘feather’ attachment.
3. When the pastry starts to form, add the rest of the flour, this will take 2-3 turns in the mixer at low speed 3 to fully incorporate the flour.
4. Pour the mixture into some cling film and put the ball of pastry in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to rest.
Next we make the Almond Cream
1. Put the butter with the sugar and vanilla in the mixer and beat until fluffy. Use the balloon whisk for this.
2. Then we will gradually add the eggs one by one. Break the first one, wait for it to homogenize with the mixture and then break the next one. If you are using a stand mixer then you can exchange the balloon whisk for the ‘feather’ whisk at this point, as it scrapes the mixture from the sides of the mixing bowl and allows everything to mix together.
3. Next you add the flour, ground almonds and salt at low speed to the mixer with the feather or if you prefer, complete this by hand and fold it all in gently.
TIP: This almond cream may be made in advance at it will keep in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Baking & Assembling the Tart
1. First we need to make the tart base, and we start by taking the tart pastry out of the fridge and placing it between two large pieces of parchment or baking paper and roll it out evenly. I like a thin pastry so roll it to about 3mm.
2. Once we have the pastry rolled out, put it in the freezer, parchment paper and all, for 1-2 hours as we want to freeze it.
3. We take it out of the freezer and cut out a disc for the base and also a strip for the ‘walls’ of the tart. To assemble, we wet the joints with water using a pastry brush.
TIP: If you prefer, just put all the pastry over the tart case, gently press the pastry into shape and then trim the edges to make it neat.
4. Whichever method you use to line the tart case, pierce the base with a fork and the walls so that it does not swell. You might want to add some parchment paper and baking beans to help prevent the pstry from rising as well, whilst you blind bake the tart case.
5. Bake at 165 -170 C
6. Small individual tarts will bake for a total of 30 minutes, a larger 20cm tart will take 40 minutes.
7. After 15 minutes (for the small individual tarts) or 20 minutes (for the larger tarts) take out of the oven and fill with our almond cream and decorate with our finely sliced apples, then back in the oven to finish baking.
8. After baking, take the tart, or tarts, out of the oven and place on a wire rack to cool.
9. When cooled, sprinkle the ground cinnamon over the top, to taste.
10. Serve, enjoy, add cream or ice cream if you wish!
11. If you can stand to wait, this will keep for a week in the fridge or 2 weeks in the freezer. Perfect if you want to make a dessert in advance for a dinner party.
