This apple butter rose tart was inspired by Rory MacDonald’s new cookbook, bake. His book is full sweets, from flaky morning pastries to intricate plated desserts. It’s a book about a pastry chef taking you through the process of a restaurant kitchen, but he made the recipes accessible for the home cook. It is a beautiful book and his apple tart recipe intrigued me the second I turned to the page.
His apple design is a super sleek spiral, whereas mine went a bit more girly and romantic. I used a vegetable turner, as he suggested, to slice the apples as thin as possible and rolled them tight into rosettes. The ruffles that formed as the apples passed through the turner reminded me of fabric and I loved the effect so much that I just gathered the apple as it fell and piled it into the center of the tart. This tart has so few ingredients and yet the finished dessert is quite striking and intricate looking, perfect for a special occasion. You can watch me put together the apple butter rose tart in my instagram video and recipe is below.
Apple Butter Rose Tart
Inspired by Rory Macdonald’s book Bake*
12+ apples (Braeburn, Fuji, Honeycrisp) – there is quite a bit of damage when using the vegetable turner, so you will want to have extra apples on hand. I ended up making applesauce with the apples I did use as the decorations. You can see me make the tart and applesauce in my instagram video.
200g unsalted butter
200g sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract (make your own)
1 tablespoon lemon juice, this was not in Rory’s recipe, but the apples I had were a bit sweet and this just helped to balance the flavor.
Pinch salt
1 recipe sweet pastry dough (Tart Dough, blind baked as directed)
To make the tart
Peel, core and chop 8 of the apples. In a large pan, melt the butter and sugar together and cook slowly until caramelized. Add the apples, cover and cook on low heat until the apples are reduced to sauce, about 20 minutes. Remove the lid and reduce the sauce until it is super thick and all the liquid is evaporated. If it is cooking too fast, put the lid back on, but leave a crack open, so the liquid evaporates slowly. This can take an hour or more. You can watch me do this in my instagram video.
Fill the prepared tart dough with the apple butter.
Using a Turner Slicer, create ribbons of apple, dip in acidulated water (2 cups water with 2 teaspoons lemon juice) and form into rosettes and place them over the filling. Pile more apple shavings over the center. Watch me slice and shape the rosettes in my instagram video.
If you have a bunch of apple pieces left after forming the rosettes, cook them down with some sugar or honey in a pot, then blend with an immersion blender and strain to make applesauce. Watch me make the applesauce in my instagram video.
Rory MacDonald’s book, Bake, was sent to me by the folks at his publisher, Rizzoli and is available March 19th or for pre-order on Amazon!
Ingredients
- 12 + apples Braeburn, Fuji, Honeycrisp*
- 200 g unsalted butter
- 200 g sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- Pinch salt
- 1 recipe sweet pastry dough RECIPE HERE
Instructions
- To make the tart: Peel, core and chop 8 of the apples.
- In a large pan, melt the butter and sugar together and cook slowly until caramelized. Add the apples, cover and cook on low heat until the apples are reduced to sauce, about 20 minutes. Remove the lid and reduce the sauce until it is super thick and all the liquid is evaporated. If it is cooking too fast, put the lid back on, but leave a crack open, so the liquid evaporates slowly. This can take an hour or more. You can watch me do this in my instagram video.
- Fill the prepared tart dough with the apple butter.
- Using a Turner Slicer, create ribbons of apple, dip in acidulated water (2 cups water with 2 teaspoons lemon juice) and form into rosettes and place them over the filling. Pile more apple shavings over the center. Watch me slice and shape the rosettes in my Instagram video.
- If you have a bunch of apple pieces left after forming the rosettes, cook them down with some sugar or honey in a pot, then blend with an immersion blender and strain to make applesauce. Watch me make the applesauce in my Instagram video.
Notes
**Lemon juice was not in Rory’s recipe, but the apples I had were a bit sweet and this helped to balance the flavor.
***Tart Dough, blind baked as directed (recipe is linked in blog post above).
This tart is absolutely stunning! Such a beautiful design ♥
wow, this is the best food art i’ve seen this year! It would stand on it’s own framed and with apples! What a perfect masterpiece to serve at next dinner party or just for fun, thank you for this recipe