As a home baker, frangipane tarts are one of my favorite ways to incorporate seasonal flavors, and to create an impressive dessert with minimal effort. This apple frangipane tart transforms everyday baking ingredients into a gorgeous and delicious delight. Mountain rose apples give it the most beautiful color, though you can use any kind of baking apple you prefer. With a shortbread-like pâte sucrée (sweet tart dough) crust, a ginger-spiked almond frangipane filling, and sweet apple topping, this tart is full of classic flavors that everyone is sure to love no matter the occasion.
What is frangipane?
Frangipane is an almond custard used as filling for tarts. That said, don’t let the word custard worry you. Unlike egg finicky custards, it’s very easy to make, and is perfect for making an impressive dessert with little effort. Frangipane also works with many kinds of nuts. This apple frangipane tart goes with the traditional route of using almond flour, but feel free to experiment with other types of nuts and flavor profiles. It puffs up beautifully in the oven and has a wonderfully light and moist texture that’s perfect for a tart.
Frangipane uses nut meal, sugar, butter, and egg as its main components. This recipe includes vanilla and ground ginger to complement the apple topping with some sweetness and warmth. Simply beat all the ingredients together until creamy and smooth, and you’re good to go. Frangipane can also be prepared up to 1 day in advance, if stored in the fridge.
Tips for the perfect pâte sucrée
Pâte sucrée is a French sweet tart dough enriched with eggs and butter. It has a soft cookie dough like consistency before baking, and a shortbread texture once baked. It’s perfect for many types of tarts, including this apple frangipane tart! This pâte sucrée includes some vanilla, which gives the tart an extra hit of sweetness. This dough uses powdered sugar, which ensures more flexibility and eliminates the risk of a grainy texture.
Making this dough is quite simple, but does take a little bit of planning in terms of chilling time. In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix the room temperature butter with the flour, powdered sugar, vanilla paste or extract, and salt. Mix until it starts to resemble coarse sand with some pebble like pieces of butter. Add in the eggs, one at a time, until the dough comes together and resembles cookie dough. Wrap it in a flat disk with some cling wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour to give the gluten time to relax and for the butter to chill. This dough is much easier to handle when it is cold, so don’t skimp on time in the fridge.
When rolling out this pâte sucrée, make sure to do so on a lightly floured surface so that the dough does not stick, and be gentle when moving it so that it does not rip. Once you have rolled it to your desired thickness and placed it in your tart pan, put it in the freezer for about 10-20 minutes. This helps to prevent the dough from shrinking in the oven.
Before filling with frangipane, liberally prick the bottom of the tart shell with a fork to prevent it from puffing up in the oven.
The beauty of mountain rose apples
I specifically developed this recipe to highlight the beauty of mountain rose apples. These beauties are naturally pink inside, and have a lovely sweet-tart taste. They keep their shape and color when baked, and are perfect for a show-stopping dessert such as this apple frangipane tart. You can typically find them starting mid-late autumn, all the way through winter.
As gorgeous as these apples are, you can make this tart with any apple variety you like, so far as it is a baking apple that holds its shape. I recommend varieties like honeycrisp, pink lady, or braeburn. Whether or not you peel the apples for this recipe is completely up to you! I did for this tart just so I could highlight the color of the mountain rose apples even more. Once the tart has been baked, the apples get brushed with some thinned out apricot preserves to make them shine.
To blind bake or not to blind bake
I might be in a minority here, but when I make frangipane tarts, I never blind bake my pastry. I find it to be a very unnecessary step, and I actually prefer the slightly softer, more shortbread-like texture that the shell gets when baked at the same time as the frangipane. The soft, fluffy frangipane pairs perfectly with the crumbly, buttery shortcrust base, no blind baking required.
Tools you’ll need
This recipe requires a 9″ standard loose bottom tart pan. If you cannot find one, it would work in a shallow quiche pan. For ease of baking and presentation, I do recommend a loose bottom pan.
As written, this recipe makes enough dough for either two 9″ tarts, or one 9″ tarts and some mini ones. You can store the excess dough, wrapped well, in the freezer for up to 3 months, or make some mini tarts to go along with the big one!
I also recommend either a stand mixer, or a hand mixer for both the dough and the frangipane.
How to serve and store this tart
This apple frangipane tart keeps best in the fridge, wrapped well, for up to 5 days. You can enjoy it cold, or bring it to room temperature before eating. Besides being a delightful dessert, it makes a wonderful breakfast alongside some coffee or tea.
More easy desserts you’ll love
Strawberry Financiers with Rhubarb and Rose Buttercream
No-Bake White Chocolate Tart with Raspberry and Rose
I hope you give this apple frangipane tart a try! Be sure to tag me on instagram so I can see your bakes, and leave me a comment below! Your feedback helps other bakers who are giving this recipe a try, and I love hearing about your bakes!
