These Apple Frangipane Tarts are absolutely stunning! Delicate frangipane filling is topped with thinly sliced apples in a delicate pie crust shell. Packed with delectable almond flavor!
Apple Frangipane Tart
Few desserts make me swoon as much as almond-flavored treats do. The sweet, delicate, and simple flavor is one that I can’t get enough of. These Apple Frangipane Tarts highlight use a basic pie dough, or pâte brisée, a scrumptious almondy frangipane filling, and the darling of Fall: honeycrsip apples.
What Is Frangipane?
Frangipane is an almond flavored pastry cream. Though it has Italian roots, this delicious filling is used frequently in both Italian and French baked goods and sweets. While it may sound fancy, but it couldn’t be simpler to make: truly!
How To Make Frangipane
Frangipane consists of just 4 key ingredients: butter, almonds (commonly almond meal), sugar, and eggs. These ingredients are blended together to form a paste which remains tender even after it’s baked. Although it already has a distinct almond flavor, I like to enhance it with the addition of both almond and vanilla extracts, as well as a little salt. It’s perfectly balanced, not overly sweet, and serves as a lovely base for a delicious tart or an unbeatable croissant filling.
Making An Apple Frangipane Tart
This tart recipe begins with a traditional pâte brisée. You can use whatever pie dough recipe you prefer, or a store bough version would work just fine.
While I made mini tarts here, you can absolutely use a traditional tart pan or pie plate; the recipe translates nicely to a full size. After pressing the dough in to your tart pans, you’ll blind bake it prior to adding the frangipane. This just means you’ll partially bake the pie dough first, and it will continue baking after you add the filling.
Once blind baked, the frangipane filling is added followed by thinly sliced honeycrisp apples arranged to look like a rose. Almost too beautiful to eat?!
Apple Frangipane Tarts
Equipment
- Mini Tart Pans with removable bottom, or 9-10 inch tart pan
Ingredients
For the Pâte Brisée:
- 2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
- 1 Tbsp sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp coarse salt
- 1 cup cold unsalted butter, cut in to cubes (2 sticks)
- 7 Tbsp ice water, more as needed
For the Frangipane:
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature (1 stick)
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 1/2 cups almond meal
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp almond extract
- Pinch salt
To assemble:
- 2-3 honeycrisp apples
Instructions
For the Pâte Brisée:
- Pulse flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor until combined.
- Add butter and pulse until coarse crumbs are formed. You can use a pastry cutter or two forks if you don't have a food processor.
- Once the dough has a rough crumb (there will be pieces roughly the size of small peas), start adding in the ice water. Start with 7 tablespoons and see how it looks: the dough should hold together when presed between your fingers. Add additional water if needed. Note that you shouldn't over process in this step: you'll be forming and pressing the dough together next, and it should still be crumbly in this stage.
- Turn the dough out on to a clean working surface, and begin to form the dough. Split in half, forming two compact disks. Wrap each in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least one hour. Dough can be frozen up to one month, just thaw in the refrigerator overnight before using.
For the Frangipane:
- Using a hand or standing mixer, combine suagr and butter until combined. Add eggs, mixing until just combined.
- Add almond meal, vanilla, and almond extracts. Add a pinch of salt, and mix until combined. Mixture will be slihtly thick.
To assemble:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Remove disk of dough 10 minutes before you're ready to work with it. Using a rolling pin, roll dough crust out on a well floured surface. Be sure to roll from the center, and turn the dough 1/8 turn every few rolls. You can use a piece of parchment paper to ensure the dough doesn't stick to your countertop if needed! Roll dough out to about 1/8 inch thickness.
- Using a round pastry cutter or glass which is just larger than your mini tart pans, cut out pieces of dough and transfer to tart pan. If you're using a large tart pan, place the whole piece of rolled out dough in to your pan. Press dough up the sides, removing any excess dough that spills over the edge with a knife.
- Prick the base of the dough with a fork a few times, and fit each tart pan with parchment paper. Top with baking weights, dry beans, or rice. This weighs the dough down, allowing it to bake without the filling in it first, so it doesn't underbake. Bake for 12 minutes, removing from the over to slightly cool.
- As the dough bakes, prep the apples. Using a mandoline or a very sharp knife, carefully cut very thin slices of the apple (mine were 1/16 inch), placing them in a bowl of warm water. This helps them be pliable so you can bend them in to the tart pan.
- Once dough has cooled, add frangipane to slightly cooled tart shells, filling each almost to the top. Of course, if you're using a larger tart pan, add all the frangipane to the pan. Smooth out the top with a spatula.
- Transfer apple slices from water to a paper towel so they aren't wet when you place them on the frangipane. Starting from the outside, start add slices of apple to the perimeter of the tart. You can arrange them so they overlap , continuing to angle them more the closer to the center you get. Using a very thinly sliced pices of apple, roll it in to a circle, and place directly in the center of the tart. Complete with remaining tarts.
- Bake completed tarts for 13-15 minutes, until frangipane is set and apples are soft. Serve plain or with whipped cream.
Notes
- Slightly altered from Martha Stewart's recipe for Pâte Brisée.