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Apple Recipes

French Apple Tart Recipe With Pastry

Cream Recipe
Written by Christine Benlafquih
Updated 02/07/20

The Spruce Eats / Ulyana Verbytska

 89 RATINGS

Total: 2 hrs
Prep: 70 mins
Cook: 50 mins
Yield: One 9" tart

3 COMMENTS Add a comment

A variety of French fruit tarts are popular in Morocco, but given a choice, I'll
always choose Tarte aux Pommes over other offerings. Thinly sliced apples
are tossed with sugar and a little bit of cinnamon, and then attractively
layered in a sweet pastry shell lined with pastry cream (creme patisserie).
Baking caramelizes the apples, while an apricot glaze adds sheen and a bit
of tartness to the finished dessert.
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Although the flavors are similar, this is not as quick to throw together as
American style apple pie. Not only will you need to give a little more care to
how you slice and arrange the apples, but you'll need to plan ahead to
make both the pastry cream and pastry dough well in advance of
assembling the tart.
Ingredients

For the Pastry Dough

■ 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

■ 2 tablespoons sugar

■ 1/2 teaspoon salt

■ 1/2 cup unsalted butter (cold, cut into bits)

1 egg yolk
■Looking for something else?

■ Water (cold)

For the Pastry Cream

■ 3 egg yolks

■ 3 to 4 tablespoons sugar

■ 1 tablespoon flour

■ 1 tablespoon cornstarch

■ 1 cup whole milk

■ 1 vanilla bean (split lengthwise, or 1 teaspoon vanilla flavoring)

For the Apple Layer

■ 5 apples (preferably firm and tart)

■ 1/2 cup sugar

■ 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

■ Optional: 1 tablespoon lemon juice

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■ 1 tablespoon butter
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For the Glaze

 ■ 1/4 cup apricot jam

■ 1 tablespoon lemon juice (or water)

Steps to Make It H I D E I M AG E S

Note: while there are multiple steps to this recipe, this French apple tart is
broken down into workable categories to help you better plan for
preparation and baking.
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Make the Pastry Dough

01 Gather the ingredients.
02 Combine the flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl.

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03 Add the butter and work it into the flour mixture with your fingers
or a pastry cutter.
04 Work in the egg yolk until the mixture looks like a fine meal.
05 Then use a fork to stir in ice water, one tablespoon at a time, until
the dough can be gathered together and pressed into a ball.

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1.199 SEK 374 SEK 1.049 SEK

 06 Shape and flatten the dough into a smooth disc shape, wrap in
plastic, and refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight.

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1.599 SEK
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Make the Pastry Cream

01 Gather the ingredients.
02 In a large bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar.

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03 Whisk in the flour and cornstarch until smooth; set aside.
04 In a saucepan, heat the milk with vanilla bean almost to boiling.
05 Remove the vanilla bean, then slowly and gradually whisk the milk
into the egg mixture.

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06 Strain the mixture back into the saucepan. Bring heat to a boil,
whisking or stirring constantly while the mixture thickens and
reaches a boil. Continue cooking for another half minute while
stirring, then remove from the heat.
 07 Lay a piece of plastic film on the surface of the pastry cream and
allow it to cool completely before using or chilling.

Assemble and Bake the Tart

01 Gather the ingredients.

02 Preheat the oven to 400 F (200 C).

03 Peel, core, and thinly slice the apples.
04 Place the slices in a bowl and toss gently with the sugar and
cinnamon.
05 If the apples start to brown, you can toss in a tablespoon of lemon
juice.
06 Roll out the pastry and fit into a 9-inch tart pan, trimming the
excess dough.
07 Spread the pastry cream across the bottom of the pastry shell.
08 Arrange the apple slices in a pattern over the pastry cream and dot
the apples with tiny bits of butter.
09 Wrap strips of aluminum foil around the edges of the tart pan to
protect the crust from burning.
10 Bake the tart in the preheated oven for about 40 minutes.
11 Remove the foil, and continue baking for another 10 minutes, or
until the apples and crust are nicely colored.
12 Remove the tart to a rack to cool.
13 While the tart is still warm, heat the apricot jam with the lemon
juice until boiling.
14 Strain the mixture.
15 Then use a pastry brush to apply the apricot glaze over the apples.
16 Refrigerate the tart when it has cooled completely.
 17 Serve chilled or at room temperature.

Tips
■ The sugar quantity in the pastry recipe below is for a less sweet
shortcrust; if you'd prefer a sweeter pastry dough, follow the pate
sucree recipe instead.

■ Note that prep and cooking times below do not reflect two hours or
more chilling time for the pastry dough.
 Recipe Variation
■ Alternate versions of this recipe include the French strawberry
tart and ​the F
​ rench peach tart.

R E A D N E X T: Your Complete Guide to 18 Apple Varieties

Recipe Tags:

Apple Dessert French Fall

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Name
 Katherine Zwingli
2 months ago
− ⚑

The apples completely soaked the pastry with their juices as this tart cooked. It looks nice and
the flavors are decent, but the pastry is ruined - and I used 1 less apple than you
recommended. I also blind baked the crust, hoping it would help keep from having a soggy
bottom, but I realized after the final bake that there was no chance of this NOT being soggy.
Looks nice and is edible, but did you actually not have this sogginess issue yourself? If I made
this again I would add some cornstarch to the cinnamon sugar mix for the apples, but even
then I think it would still be super soggy... so I don't recommend this recipe.
1△ ▽ Reply
sindu > Katherine Zwingli
2 months ago
− ⚑

I think the pastry case needs to be blind baked first, I used to use a recipe before that I can
not find atm but Ive definitely blind bakes tart cases forst.
△ ▽ Reply
elena p
− ⚑
6 days ago

Delicious, easy and beautiful. I did used another kind of apples. Thank you for a true apple
tart.
△ ▽ Reply

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