Nicole's Apple Tart

Last week we had some extra apples and my son’s extremely talented girlfriend Nicole was at our house with nothing to do and this apple tart just sort of happened. Lol! Isn’t it gorgeous?!! Look at how precisely she placed those apple slices! Being challenged in the spacial relations department and also very un-artistic, I’m in awe every time I look at it!

But don’t let those perfect concentric circles scare you off—no matter how you arrange the apples, you are going to love how this turns out because in addition to being absolutely delicious, the whole thing, including the crust, comes together easily.

You start by mixing together melted butter, both almond and regular flour, sugar, vanilla and a pinch of salt and simply pressing it into a tart pan with a removable bottom. No rolling out or anything!

Next, while the tart shell is chilling, you tackle the apples, peeling them and then cutting them as close as possible to the cores so that you wind up with 2 large pieces and 2 wedges that allow for neat and even slices to be cut.

Next, you arrange the apples however you like. Have fun!

Then, you simply sprinkle on some sugar and cinnamon and dot the whole thing with little cubes of butter—

And bake.

The crust is buttery with a nutty little crunchiness that sort of melts in your mouth and the apples are light and tender with just the right amount of cinnamony, sugar goodness!

Just one more reason to celebrate apple season…and Nicole!!!❤️❤️

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Nicole’s Apple Tart

Makes one 9-inch tart

Prep Time for crust: 5 minutes, plus 20 minutes chill time; Prep Time for apples: 15 minutes; Bake Time: 35-40 minutes

Ingredients

For the crust

• ¾ cup unsalted butter, melted

• ¾ cup almond meal or flour (I pulsed TJ’s slivered almonds in the food processor till they were finely ground but not powdery)

• ¾ cup unbleached, all-purpose flour

• 2 tablespoons sugar

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• Pinch of salt

For the apple filling

• 4 large good-for-baking apples, like Gala, Honeycrisp, Ginger Gold (about 1 ½ pounds)

• 3 tablespoons sugar

• ¼ teaspoon cinnamon

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cubed and chilled

• 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

The Recipe

1. For the crust: In a medium bowl, place the melted butter, almond flour, regular flour, sugar, vanilla extract and salt and mix together until you have a sandy mixture. It will seem too buttery but that is ok. Press into the bottom and up the sides of a 9-inch tart pan with a removable bottom. Place in the freezer for about 20 minutes while you prepare the apple filling. Preheat the oven to 400ºF.

2. To make the apple filling: Peel the apples. Then stand the apples so that the stem side is facing up and cut down vertically into the widest part on each side of the core without actually cutting into the core so that you wind up with 2 large pieces of apple. Then cut the sides off the core center part so that you get two smaller wedges. Discard the core. If you get a little bit of the core into your larger pieces of apple, trim that away and discard. Now lie the apples face down on the flat sides so that the rounded part is facing up and thinly slice the apples, sort of holding the whole piece together so that you get really even slices. Cut the wedges into thin slices as well.

3. Remove the tart shell from the freezer and place it on a rimmed baking sheet. Arrange the apple slices decoratively in the tart shell, fanning them out and overlapping a bit if you have to to fit them all in. Nicole did increasingly smaller concentric circles but don’t stress out over this—she’s an artist!! However you arrange them is fine. Sprinkle on the 3 tablespoons of sugar and the cinnamon and dot all over with the cubed butter.

4. Bake the tart for 35-40 minutes, until the crust is golden brown and the apples are tender. Sprinkle with the lemon juice and let cool. Carefully remove the outer ring and place the tart on a serving platter. Cut into wedges and serve.

Enjoy!

Note: Recipe adapted from Every Day Is Saturday by Sarah Copeland. I cut the butter to top the apples with—it just seemed like too much and made my own almond flour which gave the crust a really great crunch.