Flakey pastry filled with almond frangipane topped with apple slices and covered in apricot glaze.
Apparently, I can’t get enough of apple pies/tarts. I made that Apple Crumble Pie a couple weeks ago, and I’ve been working on a spiced apple pie recipe as well. My dad has helped eat 5 apple pies now in the last month … it’s amazing we aren’t 500 pounds by now because every slice has to have a big scoop of vanilla ice cream on top too. If you don’t have ice cream on top of pie, did you really have pie? 
I’ve been watching a lot of the Great British Baking Show lately (I know I’m a dork, but I love that show) and they make a lot of frangipane tarts on there. I haven’t run into too many frangipane tarts over here in the states, so I thought I’d give it a go. Frangipane is a crumbly yet moist almond mixture that is a touch sweet. It is a good tart filling because it adds a lot of texture but doesn’t detract flavor wise from your fruit topping.
For the crust, I used my pie crust dough enriched with an egg yolk. It has the layer of frangipane, topped with a layer of apples, and glazed with apricot jam… and of course a big scoop of vanilla ice cream!
The process for making this tart is pretty straightforward. You will need a 9-inch tart pan with a removable bottom. I tried a crust that you can press into the tart pan instead of rolling it out, but I found that it was too difficult to get the crust evenly spread out … it was thick in some places and thin in others. So even though it’s annoying to roll out the crust … it’s worth the hassle. A cool way to trim the excess overhanging dough is to run your rolling pin over the edges (middle left picture).
Fill with frangipane and arrange the apples into a flower shape. The frangipane rises up as it bakes around the apples so make sure the apple slices are sticking straight up out of the frangipane… otherwise they will be buried in the frangipane (bottom left picture). Then sprinkle sugar over the apples and dot with butter (bottom right picture).
Then cool and glaze with the apricot jam. You can skip the glaze but it adds a nice shiny finish to the tart and extra note of sweet fruitiness.
Enjoy!
- 1¼ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 Tablespoon powdered sugar
- Pinch of salt
- 8 Tablespoons salted butter, cold and cubed
- 1 large egg yolk
- 2 Tablespoons cold water
- ½ cup almond flour
- 2 Tablespoons granulated sugar
- Pinch of salt
- 2 Tablespoons salted butter, softened
- ⅛ teaspoon almond extract
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 large egg
- 2 granny smith apples
- 3 Tablespoons granulated sugar
- 4 Tablespoons salted butter, cubed
- 2-3 Tablespoons apricot jam
- Combine flour, powdered sugar, and salt in a bowl with a spatula.
- With a pastry blender, cut in the butter until the largest pieces are as small as green peas.
- Mix in the egg and water with a fork and then finish combining it in with the pastry blender. The dough will be in large clumps. You can also use your hands to finish combining the smaller crumbs in. If the dough is too crumbly to work with, add more water 1 teaspoon at a time. If the dough is too wet, add more flour when you move it to your floured counter.
- Move the dough to a well floured counter. Roll the dough into a 10 - 11 inch circle rotating it often to make sure it isn't sticking to the counter.
- Move the dough circle (by rolling it around the rolling pin) to a 9-inch nonstick tart pan with a removable bottom. Press the dough down into the edges.
- Roll your rolling pin over the edge of the tart pan to cut off the excess overhanging dough. Patch any areas that are too thin with the excess dough.
- Refrigerate the crust while preparing the filling.
- With an electric mixer, combine almond flour and sugar.
- Beat in butter until smooth.
- Add in the almond extract, vanilla, and egg and beat until smooth and consistent.
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Peel and quarter the granny smith apples. Cut each quarter into very thin slices. They should be able to bend slightly without snapping.
- Spread the frangipane into the tart crust.
- Arrange the apple slices into the tart. The frangipane rises up as it bakes and covers a lot of the apples so make sure the apples are sticking straight up out of the frangipane as opposed to laying flat.
- Sprinkle the 3 Tablespoons of sugar over the apples and then dot the top of the apples with the 4 Tablespoons of butter.
- Place the tart pan on a baking sheet and bake for 50-60 minutes or until golden brown and the frangipane appears a bit crumbly.
- Let cool.
- Heat the apricot jam in the microwave for 30 seconds and then brush it onto the apples.
- Best served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
Adapted from William Sonoma and Alexandra’s Kitchen
Tried it, easy to make and nice alternative to a pie.
After making this recipe, I think that it would be better using a blind bake on the crust, along with more almond extract. My crust was under cooked in the middle but I had to pull it from the oven because the frangipane was beginning to look a little too crisp.
Jacob, I’m sorry your crust turned out underdone. I haven’t experienced this issue… I’m thinking maybe it was a difference in oven temperatures. If the oven was running a little hotter, then the filling might end up cooking faster than the crust. The other idea I have is that maybe if the tart sat while the oven was preheating and the filling moisture seeped into the dough so that it was too wet to fully cook.
Blind baking could help… but I’d worry that you could end up over cooking the crust between the blind baking and the baking time to get the filling set. Most frangipane tart recipes that I’ve seen don’t suggest blind baking.
Thanks for the response Kaitlyn. My crust was a little thick which doesn’t help, but I’m thinking that it could be the latter case. I spent quite some time placing the apples, maybe it was long enough for the filling to permeate the crust. Also I had some air bubbles come up in my crust that caused frangipane mountains that needed to be popped! would poking holes in the crust worsen the effect of seepage? How do I combat this?
Hi Jacob! Sorry for not seeing this sooner! If the crust was too thick that could definitely cause it to be a little underdone. Were the air bubbles under the bottom of the crust or was it just the frangipane bubbling up? The frangipane is supposed to bubble up some around the apples and then as it cools they’ll sort of settle down around the apples.
Hi Kaitlyn- Amazing recipes. Quick question on this one…on assembling the frangipane, it says to combine the almond flour, flour and sugar. However there is no flour listed in the frangipane ingredients. Should there be? Or is it almond flour only? I’ve checked some other recipes and indeed they have 1T of reg flour in the frangipane in addition to the almond flour, but maybe yours doesn’t? Thank you very much for any clarification.
Hi Lloyd! Sorry for the typo! There is not any regular flour in the frangipane … not sure why I typed that! It should just be the almond flour! Thank you for letting me know! Let me know how your tart turns out!