Looking for a quick dessert that looks elegant but takes very little effort? Look no further. This apple tart (thanks, P-Dub) is a winner! It’s another treat I made for our Community Group, and slightly healthier than the Chile con Queso. I mean, it has to be . . . right?
Anyway! Slice up some apples, mix ’em with a little sugar and stuff, slap ’em on some puff pastry and voilà, ma chérie!
If you’re unconcerned about the health factor, slather on some caramel sauce or whipped cream. Even spiked whipped cream, with a little Amarula and a sprinkle of cinnamon! Now that would be heavenly.
Ingredients
(Serves 6-8)
2 sheets puff pastry (1 package)
3-4 apples
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp salt
Optional: powdered sugar, ice cream, whipped cream, or caramel sauce
Thaw the sheets of puff pastry for the amount of time specified on the package (usually 15-20 minutes).
Preheat the oven to 415 F. Halve and core the apples, and slice them as thinly as possible into half-moons . . .
. . . and try not to break your melon baller while you’re at it.
Hunh.
You can peel the apples if you want beforehand, but I like them with the peel on. Plus, less work for me.
And please try to get them just a little thinner than I did–though they’ll taste great either way.
Toss the apple slices with the lemon juice, sugar, and salt.
Let them sit for a few minutes, stirring the juicy sugar around a few times so that the apples are evenly coated.
Spray a large baking sheet with baking or cooking spray . . .
. . . cut the sheets of puff pastry in half, and place the 4 rectangles on the baking sheet. Leaving about an inch margin on all sides, arrange the apple slices in an overlapping row down the middle of each puff pastry rectangle.
I also experimented with cutting the sheet of puff pastry into thirds, like so:
However, I prefer a lot of puff in my puff pastry. I mean, what’s the point of puff pastry without the puff? Right? So the halved sheets were the clear winners.
Bake the tarts for 18-20 minutes, until the puff pastry is puffed and golden brown. Here’s the not-so-puffy version (still great, mind you):
And here’s the puffity-puff-puff-puffatron!
Can you tell that I love the word “puff”? I think I just used it a record amount of times. Call up Mr. Guinness!
Remove the tarts from the baking sheet and place on a serving dish (I like to use my cutting board). Serve sprinkled with powdered sugar, with ice cream, whipped cream, or caramel sauce. Mmmm.
If you have leftover apple slices that didn’t fit on the puff pastry, dice them, store them in a little baggy in the fridge, and use them for a delicious oatmeal topping the next morning. Or force your husband to use them as a delicious oatmeal topping the next morning! Or stir them into your yoghurt, along with some wheat germ! The possibilities are countless.
Click here for printer-friendly version: Puff Pastry Apple Tart
These look SCRUMPTIOUS, Jenna! I just made apple dessert for my church and I think I loved it more than anyone else. Love using puff pastry! And the regency ball?? How fun was that? Wishing that we had something like that around here in Savannah. Looking forward to your Christmas posts and see what you will be doing! 🙂
Looks lovely and delicious! I love puff pastry, so yummy
Those look perhaps even easy enough for me!
Those look so delicious and easy. They would be great to slip into the oven while we had dinner and by the time we were finished – viola! Warm, yummy dessert – and my family loves granny smith apples & apple pie.
Thank you Jenna – I can’t wait to surprise the family! 🙂
Sounds delicious, and easy! I like to make these with sliced plums, too!
Did you perchance like the song “Puff, The Magic Dragon” when you were little…? 🙂
Smiling over your cooking spray photo — it looks like an ad from the 50’s, very cool! I also liked how your sliced apple mixture held down the half-sheets of puff pastry to form a pool of cinnamon-sugar-juicy goodness in the middle. I vote for half-sheets, too. (But I’d eat an entire third if you gave it to me.) Deeee-licious, Miss Jenna!
Puff pastry fancies everything up. But it’s ridiculously easy to use.
Oh that does look divine. I think I might be giving these a try this weekend!
What a great easy recipe! I love puff pastry desserts!
yum!
Oh yum… Puff pastry really scares me. I might have to overcome it to try these 🙂
Dude! It’s totally non-scary. I mean, making it from scratch probably is, but the ones from the grocery store are SO easy to use! You just defrost them, pile some stuff on and bake away!
Fruit = total health food no matter how much caramel you slather it in.
What I would give to be able to go to your dinners and taste this!
So pretty and yet so simple. Thanks for posting! I might try this for our small group Christmas party.
And I now know what dessert I’m bringing to my book club’s holiday party on Monday. Yummy and easy? Sign me up. Thanks!
YUMMY!!! I’m going to try this for our small family Christmas dinner…but maybe need to try it just for me this weekend! 🙂
Trying stuff “just for you” is always worth it. =) Go for it!
Puff pastry kinda’ scares me too but, if it’s really that easy I may try it. Your chile con queso was a hit at Thanksgiving. My little nephews were telling their Mom that Aunt Suzie’s dip was better than hers…lol!! 😉
I promise! It’s really that easy. And I’m glad to hear the Chile con Queso was such a hit!
How NOT to make this lovely dessert:
– Mix all ingredients and top apples on pastry
– Carry on cookie sheet to your sister in law’s house and leave on the counter to bake after dinner (warm dessert!!!) so let it sit for like an hour
– Unwrap and wonder if the fact that all the lovely liquid shown above in Jenna’s pictures is now pooled around the pastry at the bottom of the cookie sheet
– Decide it’ll be just fine and bake anyway
Results? Dried apples since they had no juice at all. Burn and stuck on for life bottom half of pastry because of the sugar mixture turned cement like caramel.
They were tasty and I KNOW they would be AWESOME if you make it right. We still ate them after peeling the top layer of pastry with the apples off of the cookie sheet and eating that with some vanilla custard and hot fudge drizzle. Yum!
Oh no! Giselle, you poor thing! I’m sorry it was disastrous . . . but I’m kind of laughing right now. Laughing WITH you of course, not AT you. Never AT you. =)
Oh, the apple corer…. or more popularly known as the melon baller!! That seems to be a happenin’ with such devices. Hence, I finally found a single-piece stainless steel baller so that the ends couldn’t brake off like yours (and mine in years past) did. If I should find one like mine, I will get it for you!! True, the flat middle section is not as comfortable in the hand as the rounded wood or plastic ones, but there is nothing about it that can come apart or break off.
The apple tarts remind me of the pastry shops in Spain! Pleasant memories =).
Yum! Looks delicious. I would be all over these if I saw them somewhere
I missed this one but gladly, not for long! I love easy desserts and it’s good to have them in your arsenal in case of emergency. thanks!
Your Puff pastry apple tart looks delicious. I just wanted to share a little tip with you. Whenever I bake something that has a layer of apples on top, I brush the top with a bit of apricot jam that I warmed in the microwave so it’s not so thick. Then I take a paintbrush, like the kind used for bbq sauce, and paint the jam over the apples. It only takes a minute or two, and makes the fruit glisten while improving their color. If this is something that is going to be consumed right away, I even brush the edges of the pastry with the jam, which makes it shine. To give my pastry a wonderful fragrance, I store dry vanilla beans in powdered sugar, then lightly dust over my desserts.
Thanks–awesome tip!
PS – I paint the apples on my desserts with apricot jam AFTER the dessert is baked.