The simplest ingredients come together in something quite extravagant with this dessert. This tart will satisfy those who love desserts that aren’t too sweet with just the right amount of freshness.
It is a bit of a labor of love to get the apples sliced the same size (thank god for the mandolin) and the proper arrangement on the tart. Aside from that, the small amounts of butter, sugar and having a premade frozen pastry adds an element of ease to the dish.
All that being said, this dessert needs your time and attention. There will be time with peeling & slicing the apples, as well as the arranging, baking, caramel and baking again. I’m not saying any of this to scare you off. It is as easy as it gets, just time consuming. For those of you who love to create something beautiful, as well as delicious, this is soooo worth that time.
The main tip with this dish is to have everything ready for your apples. Pre-cut the butter & store in the fridge, roll out the pastry dough and place it on the sheet pan, preheat the oven and get your station ready.
This end result is worth every minute of time put into this dish!!!
Mosaic Apple Tart
Ingredients:
- 14oz frozen puff pastry, thawed
- 3-4 apples, peeled and sliced thin and even
- 2 Tbls sugar
- 2 Tbls cold butter, cut into small pieces
- Flour
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2 Tbls cold butter
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 2 Tbls heavy cream
Preparation:
- Heat your oven to 400 degrees and line your sheet pan with parchment paper.
- Sprinkle the flour on your work surface, unfold your puff pastry and roll out. Roll it out gently until it fits the sheet pan. Place in sheet pan.
- Peal the apples, cut in half and remove the cores and stems. Using a mandolin (or just a knife), thinly slice the apples.
- Begin arranging the apple slices around the pastry dough starting with the edges. Over lap them so that about 1/2 – 1 inch of the prior apple is showing.
- Sprinkle the sugar over the tart to cover all the apples and place the small, cold pieces of butter around the top of the apples.
- Place in oven and bake for 30 minutes until the pastry browns and the apples start to color.
- While the tart is almost done, begin the caramel sauce by heating the 1/4 cup sugar over medium high heat in a sauce pan. Let the sugar cook over the heat until sugar turns a nice copper color.
- Take off heat and add salt and butter until completely melted. Return to head and slowly add the heavy cream. Definitely add slowly because once the heavy cream hits the melted sugar, it will start to boil up.
- Cook for another few minutes until you reach a nice caramel color, then remove from the heat.
- Pull the tart out of the oven and carefully brush the top of the apples with the caramel. Try to time it so that the tart comes out close to when the caramel is finished. The warmer the caramel, the easier to spread.
- Place the tart back in the oven for another 5-10 minutes until the caramel sauce is bubbling.
- Remove, let cool a little (hot caramel is really hot), cut anyway you would like and enjoy!
Happy Baking!!!
*Recipe from Smitten Kitchen – Mosaic Apple Tart.
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