Easy, Flaky Autumn Tarte aux Pommes

An Undemanding, Delicious Apple Tart with an Easy Spirit and a Pretty Face

Salut les doux rêveurs (Hey there you sweet dreamers),

I posted a photo of this tarte aux pommes in a recent post and got numerous requests for the ridiculously easy recette (recipe), so here we go! Scroll down ⬇️ if you just want to go straight to the recipe without my notes.

I also made an Autumn Playlist for your 🍂Sweater Weather🍁 Soirées, just under the recipe below. I suggest giving it a listen while you peel apples 🎶

I was inspired when our dear neighbor in the French countryside popped by to offer some garden advice and ended up giving us heaps of apples from his own garden. Elle est jolie, non ? Also, that dappled garden sunlight is 🔥

EASY TARTE AUX POMMES

• Preparation time: 20 mins

• Cooking Time: 30 mins

• Serves 6-8 reasonable people, or just me

Full Fruit Disclosure: this autumnal French apple tart is so easy and basic—I didn’t even make it up. It’s everywhere, all the time, and takes on varying forms (such as making a rectangle shape pastry and cutting it into serving squares, or forming “hand-pies” — little hot pockets of pure pomme happiness). Some may call it une galette.

In my version, I think it’s just the combination of the simplicity and the attention to cutting and arranging the apples in opposing circles that renders this tarte so mignonne.

Easy/Please-y

Aside from the fact that c’est du gâteau (it’s a piece of cake to make), this is one of those desserts that is both a show-stopper on the table and an undeniable palette-pleaser. It takes advantage of one of my favorite seasonal ingredients—des pommes, bien sûr (apples, of course)—and showcases their deliciousness via very few additions.

The puff pastry keeps this autumnal sweet treat léger light and feuilleté (flaky). I use French store-bought pâte feuilletée (puff pastry) because it’s so much more reliable than my own skill and patience at dough making, but if you want to make your own, allez, vas-y ! (go right ahead!)

Finally, lemon juice simply adds a bit o’ zip, and butter and sugar are just there to serve by bringing on a little caramelization. Eh voilà ! It’s this weekend’s dessert.

Have Tarte aux Pommes, Will Travel

Because it’s light and thin and not goopy at all, it packs really well for une soirée chez des amis. Monsieur B even took one to the office and it got great reviews from the French, which I hope will help convince you to make one right now 🍏

I used a fairly sweet apple variety, the name of which I don’t know, because our kind neighbor took us over to his yard and literally shook a tree with a rake, unleashing at least four hundred ripe fruits upon our heads. We were delighted, if slightly concussed, and we went home and started peeling!

That (peeling and coring) is the biggest effort in this recipe (which is why I made my wonderful husband break out his apple-peeling contraption—he secretly loves it), and of course depending on your apple preferences, you could even leave the skins on. I just prefer this particular dessert completely naked.

No need to pre-cook any ingredients except to melt the butter for a few seconds in le four à micro-ondes (the microwave).

INGREDIENTS

• Apples (your favorite baking variety), peeled and cored (I used 10 apples, on the small side of medium-sized to fill our shallow moule à tarte, or tart pan, which measures 27cm/ 11 inches round). Slice apples into thin wedges. That thin slicing, not paper-thin, but pretty thin, is what gives the appearance its elegant structure.

• Store-bought Puff Pastry Disc (defrosted if frozen, but kept cool for ease in working with it)

• 4 TBSP unsalted Butter (or use salted butter and skip the salt below)

• 1/4 cup Brown Sugar (or regular Sugar if you prefer)

• Juice of 1/2 a Lemon

• Pinch Salt

PREPARATION

STEP ONE

Peel, core and slice your apples, then set them aside in a bowl and squeeze the lemon juice over them.

STEP TWO

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius/350 degrees Fahrenheit. Lay your puff pastry out onto a tart pan lined with parchment paper (the French version comes wrapped in it which is so nice!). Make sure you have some overlapping pastry still hanging over the edge of the pan all around (you’ll pinch it down later). Prick the pastry with a fork all over to prevent over-puffing.

STEP THREE

Melt the butter and sugar together and brush a little bit onto the pastry, including the edges. Save most of the butter for drizzling onto the apples later.

STEP FOUR

Carefully nestle your apple slices overlapping and angling them slightly upwards. Continue all around the circle, then make a smaller inner circle, but going in the opposite direction. Finally, fill the remaining center space with another circular grouping of apples.

STEP FIVE

Drizzle the apples with the remaining butter/sugar mixture. If you like, you can sprinkle a little dry sugar over the whole thing for even more glistening.

Then pinch and push down the remaining border of pastry all around. It’s really a pinch/push down. Check out the photo/video for what I mean. It’s a rustic look that just slightly overlaps the edge of the apples now, instead of flapping over the pan edge.

STEP SIX

Bake the tart for about 30 minutes or until the pastry is golden and the apples are tender.

Let cool, then serve with freshly whipped cream (or ice cream!) and if you’re a little bit extra, add a snifter of Calvados (French apple brandy) or your favorite apple spirit.

Wishing you a sweet and joyful moment with a bit of seasonal French flair 🍏 🍎

Bises 😘

Karen