Do you feel like baking? Then make this gorgeous apple-rose tart. A lovely buttery crust, some sweet cinnamon filling and a bouquet of red apples make this tart a real show-off. This is an easy way how to make a beautiful and delicious apple tart with a more modern rather than classic style.
We needed apples and we bought too many. But it wasn’t our fault; they were beautiful and their aroma was amazing! So, what to do, when you have too many apples? Definitely make a fantastic apple tart. Well, in this case, a more than fantastic apple-rose tart. Wink.
Also, you don’t need to wait till autumn comes to make an apple tart. In fact, an apple tart is perfect for any occasion, any time, any season. Enjoy it just because you want to.
As you can see, this apple-rose tart is topped with delicate apple-roses, made completely out of apple slices. Even though it looks like an edible piece of art, it’s easier to make than you might think. Look at me for example; it was my first attempt and I made it. All you need is patience (which I will repeat a couple more times today).
The base – tart crust
To begin with, I would like to say a couple of words about the tart dough or the short-crust dough too. Making a short-crust dough is easy and it can be done in 5 minutes. All you need to do is combine all the required ingredients into a dough and put it to rest.
In addition, remember these two things; always use cold butter and always let it rest in a refrigerator. I made short-crust dough many times and it always turned out great. Check out this lovely tomato-zucchini tart, a delicious cauliflower crust tart, the cutest spinach tartelettes, a rustic celery tart, the beautiful carrot tart or the spooky finger cookies.
Make the slices super thin
On one hand, making the apple-rose tart is easy on the other hand making the apple roses requires quite some time. But, definitely worth every minute I’ve spent rolling up those small roses. What you have to know about the apple slices is, they have to be really really thin. I am talking about 1mm or even thinner. Yeah, almost like a sheet of paper.
In order to get those super thin slices, you need concentration, patience and you can use either a mandoline or a sharp knife. That being said, using a mandoline can „damage“ the red skin of the apple, which is important to give that so lovely pink-red colour to each one of the apple-roses. On the other hand, using a knife requires more time.
Red apples are the best
Moreover, first I suggest using red or pink apples. As such, they will resemble real red roses. Second, keep the slices in cold water mixed with some lemon in order to prevent the browning and third, before folding them in a rose, you have to soften them in boiled water for no longer than 40 seconds.
If you cook them for too long, they will break apart and lose all of the lovely colour. Another important thing is to transfer them back to the cold water after softened. Gosh, was that a lot of talking about some simple apple slices or what?!
In the end, I also had to think about what to use as a tart filling and how do I make the apple-roses stay in place. And then I saw how John from Preppy Kitchen made it. Combine four ingredients such as butter (butter makes everything better), sugar (I used the coconut sugar), vanilla and cinnamon and you’ll get a simple yet fantastic tart filling. Oh, so simple! Why I haven’t thought of that?! Anyway, simply perfect!
In conclusion, you’ll need to partly bake the crust, before filling it. Therefore, using the blind baking method is the best. In other words, once the dough is in the tart form, you need to cover it with parchment paper, put some weights on that and put to bake. For example, you can use dry beans or peas. I used uncooked rice. This method will prevent the dough from puffing up. It is all explained further in the recipe.
Ingredients for apple-rose tart (1x 20 cm Ø, 2x 10 cm Ø):
- 50 g flour
- 80 g almond flour
- 90 g butter (cold, cubed)
- 3 Tbsp of plain yogurt
- 1 egg (beaten)
- 2 tsp of cinnamon
- 1 Tbsp of coconut sugar
- a pinch of salt
- 3 apples (thinly sliced)
- 1 lemon (juice)
For the filling:
- 60 g butter
- 70 g coconut sugar
- 2-3 drops of vanilla extract
- 2 tsp of cinnamon
Start with making the short-crust dough. In a large bowl combine the flour, almond flour, cold butter, egg, cinnamon, yogurt, coconut sugar and a pinch of salt. I would suggest starting with a hand mixer and once crumbles start to form, continue kneading with your hands.
After all of the ingredients are well combined, in other words, when they transform from crumbles to a nice dough, form a ball and then flatten it into a disc form. Wrap the dough into cling film and put in the fridge to rest for at least 30 minutes.
In the meantime, you can start slicing the apples. Prepare a larger bowl, filled with cold water. Squeeze the lemon juice in it and put it aside. Wash the apples and cut them into halves or quarters (I cut them into quarters, but you do whatever suits you more). Then slice them into almost see-through thin slices. I was using a knife rather than a mandoline and tried to make the slices as thin as possible. In order to keep the apple slices fresh-looking put them in the bowl with cold water (which you prepared before) right after you cut them.
Blind baking
Take the dough out of the fridge to let it soften slightly for easy rolling and preheat your oven to 220ºC. Then, using some butter, grease the tart form. I know, more butter. Now roll out the dough (I did it simply on the cling film) till 5mm thin.
Lay the dough over the tart form (I also used it for the two small forms) and press it in with your hands. Press it well around the sides and also the bottom in order to perfectly fit the form. With a sharp knife trim off the edges hanging over the tart form.
Are you ready for the blind bake? Of course, you are. Wink. First, prickle the bottom of the tart with a fork, second, cover the crust with parchment paper and add some weights on top (as I said, I used uncooked rice) and last, put to bake for 10 minutes.
Since we are baking it just partially, after 10 minutes, remove the parchment paper with the rice and bake for another 8 minutes at 180ºC. While the tart crust is baking, boil some water, pour it in a bowl and put the apple slices in it. Leave them there for 30-40 seconds in order to make them flexible for rolling into a rose. When they reached the right flexibility, transfer them back to the bowl with cold lemon-water.
Furthermore, take the tart crust out of the oven and put aside. In a small saucepan, melt the butter, coconut sugar, vanilla and cinnamon. Stir until thickened. It will take about 2 minutes.
Finally, spread the sweet and buttery filling over the tart’s bottom. Be generous and make it at least 5 mm thick. Why? One, it is simply too good and two it’s a great bond between the crust and apple-roses.
How to form an apple-rose
Start by laying the first apple slice in front of you. For instance, the cut part should be at the bottom and the part with the red skin should be on top. Got it? Wink. Good. Then, place the next slice (moving to the right) halfway overlapping the first one. Continue like this with 4 more slices. Usually, it takes 5-6 slices to form a small rose.
Furthermore, starting from left, roll up the whole row of 5 apple slices and place it red skin up into the tart. You just made your first apple-rose! Continue till you filled up the last empty space of the tart crust and put to bake for another 10 minutes. Now you know what I meant when I said patience. Wink.
The apple-rose tart is ready! I let it cool down for 20 minutes, in order to let the filling set. Ohh, you will so love this apple tart. It is crunchy, sweet, fruity, tender and it tastes just like your grandmother would have made it. Therefore, make it for any occasion, for tea-time, coffee-time, birthday, party or just for a snack for yourself.
Enjoy!
PS
If you like the recipe, if you make the recipe or if you have any new ideas how to improve or change it, let me know in the comments section below or alternatively share your photos and reactions with me on Instagram (@Passionspoon), Facebook or Twitter (@PassionSpoon1). Simply use the hashtag #passionspoonrecipes in your posts. I would love to see them! (wink)
