Crispy Crackly Apple Almond Tart

This is one of those tarts that win every time. It´s crispy, crackly, nutty and barely sweet. Just what I like in a fruit dessert.

Today´s recipe for our French Fridays with Dorie group, is an apple frangipane tart made with filo dough. It can be found in Dorie Greenspan´s book Around my French Table.

I´m using the word frangipane (almond cream) a bit loosely here, because the traditional one doesn´t have cream and uses powdered sugar. Or at least all the ones I´ve made from french books. That said, this recipe will become my go-to almond cream favorite from now on. It´s richer and creamier than the other ones. It comes together in a nano second, especially if you, like me, have almond meal. If you have to ground the almonds it will take a bit more. I have forever made it in the food processor, though this recipe has you mixing in different bowls and by hand. I just dumped everything in and blitzed until a cream was formed. That was before I read the instructions correctly, something I have a tendency of doing.

Following the above mentioned tendency, I also didn´t read the part where it said that the filo sheets had to be buttered and sprinkled with a bit of sugar as I stacked them. So I buttered the eight pieces of dough before reading the recipe again. And you know what? It´s not difficult to un-stack the thin, thin dough. Just use a light touch and be careful. So after sprinkling the sugar I cut the apples. It´s a miracle they are almost in two neat rows. I´m not careful with those details. But this was easy and being such a thin and crackly crust, it needs apples that are cut thin and overlapping.

So things worked out very well in the end. The filo dough behaved as only she knows how to and produced that wonderfully thin crashing sensation when I bit into it. The almond cream with apples and a drizzle of honey that I used on top is a perfect flavor combination. My only regret is that the apples don´t brown or caramelize. 

This is a tart to make many, many times using all different kinds of nuts for the cream and fruits for the topping. A superb tart as only the french know how to do. The recipe can be found here.