Tag Archives: Tart

Apple Frangipane Tart

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The classic combination of apples and almonds come together in this impressive tart.

Apple Almond Tart
Last week, a friend humorously pointed out that when he Googles “Easy Oatmeal Cookie Recipe” he’s stuck wading through a bunch of food bloggers’ unrelated bullshit stories about their life, family, eating habits and the history of oatmeal before getting to the actual recipe.

As a food blogger, all I can say to him is…I TOTALLY FUCKING AGREE.

It drives me insane when I’m looking for a recipe and have to scroll past a 1000 word essay from Suzy about her most recent trip to Disneyworld with her “hubby” and the twins, Zach and Sadie – And dodge pop-ups hawking her latest self-published cookbook, her weekly newsletter, and a request to “like” her on Facebook. And let’s not forget the process photos…ingredients on the table…ingredients piled in a bowl…ingredients all stirred together. Ugh!

And yet, I’m just as guilty as Suzy – or at least partially.

For most bloggers, or the ones trying to make a living at it anyway (not me), it’s about SEO – Search Engine Optimization. Or, more specifically, Google SEO. If a blogger’s goal is their recipe appearing in the first page or two when someone Googles “Easy Oatmeal Cookies,” they need a post of 2000+ words in length, they need to mention their key words “Easy” and “Oatmeal Cookies” in the first paragraph, they need to include multiple “process photos,” plus a dozen more “musts.” There’s a plethora of blogger dos and don’ts for optimum Google SEO. It’s maddening.

I flirt with the Google rules, but SEO isn’t that important to me. This blog initially started as a private online journal. Before 2008, I used to handwrite in a journal nightly – stream of consciousness stuff, gibberish mostly. Then I went online in an effort to improve my writing skills. The blog, called Phorenications at the time, was a bunch of random stories and thoughts in my head. In 2009, I went to culinary school and sometime after that, Phorenications morphed into Two-Bit Tart and became a food blog. I now find myself in the same place as every other food blogger, trying to write an intro paragraph that somehow, even tangentially, ties in to whatever I made today.

I wish we had the luxury to write when we felt like writing and just post the recipe when we don’t. Tonight, for example, I would be ecstatic to post this recipe for this lovely apple almond tart and be done with it. Instead, I gave you the story above.


Apple Frangipane Tart (Apple Almond Tart)

  • Servings: One 9” Tart
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Apples and almonds are a classic combination. Make sure the crust and apples are room temperature (refrigerate if needed) before assembling.


Ingredients

    Apples
  • 5 Golden Delicious apples (about 3 lbs.), peeled and cored
  • 1 Tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 1 Tablespoon water
    • Crust
  • 10-oz package shortbread cookies, such as Lorna Doone
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
    • Frangipane
  • 4 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 1 ¼ cup almond flour
  • 1 Tablespoon all-purpose flour
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 2 large eggs
  • ½ teaspoon almond extract (or ¼ t. almond ¼ t. vanilla)
  • ½ teaspoon lemon zest
    • Glaze
  • 3 Tablespoons apricot preserves

Directions

  1. Prepare the apples: Cut apples into quarters and each quarter into 4 slices (each apple should yield 16 slices). Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add apple slices, and water and stir to combine. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally until apples begin to turn translucent and slightly pliable, about 7 minutes. Spread apples on a paper-towel lined plate in a single layer to cool.
  2. Make shortbread crust: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In the bowl of a processor, pulse shortbread cookies and salt into crumbs. Add melted butter and pulse until mixture resembles wet sand. Press crumbs along bottom and up sides of a 9” tart pan. Place pan on a piece of aluminum foil to catch any leaking butter. Bake for 15 minutes. Cool.
  3. Make the Frangipane: Cream the softened butter, stir in the powdered sugar, almond flour, flour, salt, eggs, almond extract, and lemon zest.
  4. Pipe Frangipane in the bottom of shortbread crust. Arrange apple slices, tightly overlapping in concentric circles with outside curve of slices pointing up (see photo of finished tart above). Bake tart on center rack for about 60 minutes. Remove tart from oven and heat broiler.
  5. While broiler heats, warm apricot preserves 30 seconds to 1 minute until liquid. Strain preserves and brush over apples, avoiding tart crust. Broil tart, checking every 30 seconds, and moving if necessary until apples are caramelized, about 2 minutes total. Let tart cool before removing ring and slicing.

Salted Chocolate Dulce de Leche Tart

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Chocolate Caramel Tart

We grow grey in our spirit long before we grow grey in our hair.
– Charles Lamb

I’m defiant.  Stuffing my ears to block out all the “we’re old” talk surrounding me.  I refuse to accept that the best years of our lives are over. Rather than discussing our diminishing vitality and increasing waistlines, tell me about the latest art exhibition/ book/movie/speech that gave you goosebumps and, if you can’t remember, let’s go find one – or let’s create something ourselves. Rather than putting our dreams away on dusty shelves, let’s set lofty goals for our 50’s, our 60’s, our 70’s and beyond!  Let’s not grow grey in spirit – (To quote the Olay ad) let’s fight it every step of the way.

To keep us inspired…

Youthful Spirits:
52: Sister Madonna Buder, the “Iron Nun,” competed in her first triathlon at age 52.
53: Nicola Griffin started modeling when she was 53 years young.
55: Ronald Reagan entered politics at age 55.
58: Marla Wynne Ginsburg started her own fashion line at 58.
61: Momofuku Ando Invented Ramen Cup Noodles at age 61.
64: Laura Ingalls Wilder didn’t publish her first book until she was 64.
65: Colonel Sanders started KFC at 65 years old.
65: Frank McCourt took up writing at the age of 65. His book Angela’s Ashes won both the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Critics Circle Award.
68: At 68, Lillian Carter, President Carter’s mother, joins the Peace Corps and spends the next two years working as a nurse near Bombay, India.
73: Peter Roget invented the Thesaurus at age 73.
76: Grandma Moses didn’t begin to paint until the age of 76.
76: At 76, H. G. Wells, school drop-out at 14, completes his doctoral dissertation, earning a D.Sc.
86: Gladys Burrill ran her first marathon when she was 86 years old.
95:  At 95, Nola Ochs became the oldest person to receive a college diploma.
102: At 102, Alice Pollock publishes her first book, Portrait of My Victorian Youth.

I created this Salted Chocolate Tart for a colleague’s 50th birthday celebration.  Rather than lamenting his waning youth, I’m exalting his youthful spirit and his amazing accomplishments yet to come.   No black balloons here!

Inspired by one of my favorite bar cookies.


Salted Chocolate Dulce de Leche Tart

  • Servings: One 9” Tart
  • Print

Inspired by one of my favorite bar cookies, this creamy caramel-chocolate tart comes together quickly yet still delivers the big dessert WOW factor needed for special occasions.


Ingredients

  • 10-oz package shortbread cookies, such as Lorna Doone
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 1 13.5 can dulce de leche
  • 4 large egg yolks
  • 5 oz. bittersweet chocolate, at least 60%, chopped
  • Glazed sliced almonds
  • Flaky Sea Salt, such as Maldon

Directions

  1. Make shortbread crust: Preheat oven to 350 F. In the bowl of a processor, pulse shortbread cookies and salt into crumbs. Add melted butter and pulse until mixture resembles wet sand. Press crumbs along bottom and up sides of a 9” tart pan. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden. Cool.
  2. Make filling: In a medium sauce pan, bring heavy cream and dulce de leche to simmer, whisking until dulce de leche fully melts – don’t boil. In a medium bowl, whisk egg yolks and then slowly whisk cream mixture into yolks, tempering to avoid curdling eggs. Return mixture to sauce pan and cook over medium heat, whisking constantly until temperature registers 170 degrees. Remove from heat and whisk in chocolate until melted.
  3. Pour chocolate mixture through a sieve over cooled shortbread crust. Chill, uncovered, until set, at least 2 hours. Garnish with glazed sliced almonds and a sprinkling of flaky sea salt. Chill until ready to serve.