Last weekend my friend Dorothy gave me some lovely Braeburn apples. Since I stink at making pies, an apple pie was out of the question. But I'm good at making tarts, so I decided to try the recipe for Caramel Apple Tartelettes from Standard Baking Co. Pastries.
These tarts have a cooked apple filling between a layer of caramel sauce and a streusel topping. To make the filling, you simmer sliced apples with water, sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, and salt until the fruit breaks down, the liquid evaporates, and you get something resembling chunky applesauce. The recipe says this process should take about one and a half to two hours, but my filling was done in about 50 minutes. The recipe also directs you to crush any remaining large pieces of apple with a spoon, but I decided to leave a few big chunks of fruit in the mixture.
According to the headnote, the recipe for the "Perfect Tart Dough" is "a gift to the world from Pierre Hermé." You make the tart dough in a stand mixer by beating softened butter with milk, egg yolk, sugar, all-purpose flour, cake flour, and salt. You chill the dough for at least four hours before rolling it out, lining the tart pans (the recipe suggests using a muffin tin, but I used four-inch tart rings), and chilling for another hour before assembling the tarts.
The remaining components of the tart are the caramel sauce and the streusel. To make the caramel sauce, you cook sugar with water and corn syrup until the mixture turns amber, and then add in butter, heavy cream, sour cream, and salt. The streusel is melted butter mixed with sugar, dark brown sugar, salt, and flour.
Once all of the components are ready, assembly is a snap; you simply spoon some caramel into the bottom of each chilled tart shell, add some apple filling, and then sprinkle on some streusel. While the recipe says it yields a dozen tartelettes if you make them in regular-sized muffin cups, I got seven using my larger tart rings (and the apple filling was the constraining component -- I had enough dough and caramel for at least one or two more tarts, and more streusel than I could shake a stick at). Even though there was just a thin layer of caramel underneath the apple filling, the caramel bubbled up around the edges of the tarts while they were baking.
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I thought the finished tarts were quite pretty. The streusel had a nice mix of large chunks and fine crumbs, and it completely retained its shape in the oven. I have a pet peeve about streusel that melts during baking, but this version was perfect. I didn't mind the bit of caramel overflow around the edges of the crust, because I thought it added visual interest and gave a hint of the caramel-y deliciousness inside. And goodness gracious, how good these were!
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Now that I've discovered this recipe, I couldn't care less that I can't make apple pie worth a damn. These tartelettes were freakin' delicious. The crust was nicely browned, buttery, and flaky; the apple filling was sweet and warmly spiced; the streusel on top was crunchy and flavorful; and the rich caramel flavor in every bite was the bomb. I think the caramel is what puts the tart over the top, but every part of it is simply perfection.
Recipe: "Caramel Apple Tartelette," "Perfect Tart Dough," "Caramel Sauce," and "Streusel" from Standard Baking Co. Pastries by Alison Pray and Tara Smith.
These tarts have a cooked apple filling between a layer of caramel sauce and a streusel topping. To make the filling, you simmer sliced apples with water, sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, and salt until the fruit breaks down, the liquid evaporates, and you get something resembling chunky applesauce. The recipe says this process should take about one and a half to two hours, but my filling was done in about 50 minutes. The recipe also directs you to crush any remaining large pieces of apple with a spoon, but I decided to leave a few big chunks of fruit in the mixture.
According to the headnote, the recipe for the "Perfect Tart Dough" is "a gift to the world from Pierre Hermé." You make the tart dough in a stand mixer by beating softened butter with milk, egg yolk, sugar, all-purpose flour, cake flour, and salt. You chill the dough for at least four hours before rolling it out, lining the tart pans (the recipe suggests using a muffin tin, but I used four-inch tart rings), and chilling for another hour before assembling the tarts.
The remaining components of the tart are the caramel sauce and the streusel. To make the caramel sauce, you cook sugar with water and corn syrup until the mixture turns amber, and then add in butter, heavy cream, sour cream, and salt. The streusel is melted butter mixed with sugar, dark brown sugar, salt, and flour.
Once all of the components are ready, assembly is a snap; you simply spoon some caramel into the bottom of each chilled tart shell, add some apple filling, and then sprinkle on some streusel. While the recipe says it yields a dozen tartelettes if you make them in regular-sized muffin cups, I got seven using my larger tart rings (and the apple filling was the constraining component -- I had enough dough and caramel for at least one or two more tarts, and more streusel than I could shake a stick at). Even though there was just a thin layer of caramel underneath the apple filling, the caramel bubbled up around the edges of the tarts while they were baking.
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Recipe: "Caramel Apple Tartelette," "Perfect Tart Dough," "Caramel Sauce," and "Streusel" from Standard Baking Co. Pastries by Alison Pray and Tara Smith.
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