Apple Almond Tart

Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some eat greatness in an apple tart. We count ourselves in the third category. Our Apple Almond Tart is a trifecta of dessert greatness. A crisp and flaky butter pastry base, creamy almond cheese filling, and delicately cooked apples for tart contrast. We recommend that you go ahead and double this recipe the first time, as we we polished off an entire tart ourselves in record speed.

Yield: one large tart, serves 6-8

Ingredients:

  Pastry:

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 2/3 cup cake flour
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 cup cold water

   Almond Filling

• 2/3 cup almond flour
• 4 ounces cream cheese
• 4 egg yolks
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• pinch (1/16 teaspoon) kosher salt

   Topping:

• 2-3 large sour apples, thinly sliced
• 2 tablespoons boiled apple cider syrup (optional)

Steps:

1. Preheat the oven to 400.
2. To make the pastry: In a food processor, pulse flours, sugar and salt until blended. Add butter (cut into small chunks), and pulse 6-8 times. It should appear like moist crumbly sand with some pea sized chunks. Add the cold water, and pulse an additional 6 times. The dough should just hold together when pressed. The same basic technique can be applied to a stand mixer, or even by hand. In all methods you are trying to work the dough as little as possible, with ingredients evenly distributed but with some small pieces of butter remaining for flakiness.  
3. Squeeze the dough together to form a ball, and flatten into a rough disk (about 3/4" think, 5" in diameter) with your hands.  Wrap in plastic wrap and put into the freezer to rest for 5 minutes.
4. Remove the dough from the freezer, it should be firm but not stiff. Roll in a circle to about 1/8" thick. Butter and flour a tart pan, and put in the dough, ensuring  you get the dough evenly in into the corners of the pan. Trim and discard any extra dough. Bake the empty pastry shell at 400 for 10 minutes. Remove the pastry shell and let cool while you prepare the filling.
5. Reduce the oven to 375.
6. To make the almond filling: Add all the almond filling ingredients (almond flour, cream cheese, egg yolks, sugar, butter, flour, milk, almond extract, vanilla extract, and salt) to a food processor. Process for 1 minute, or until the mixture is smooth. 
7. To make the tart: Pour the almond filling into the cooling pie crust, using a spatula to evenly distribute. Making concentric circles, layer the apple slices carefully on top of the almond filling. You are looking for 3-4 layers of apple slices. Warm the boiled apple cider syrup briefly in the microwave and brush about half over the apple slices.
8. Bake the tart at 375 for 45 minutes. Remove from the oven and brush with the remaining warm boiled apple cider syrup. Allow to cool 5-10 minutes, and eat while still warm. Keeps in the refrigerator for up to one week.