Apple and Amaretti Tart
Serves 8,
Prepare 30 minutes,
Cook 35-40 minutes.
I’ve been making versions of this elegantly rustic tart for well over twenty years. A vague memory pins the original to a fridge-side and dog-eared magazine clipping… vaguer still, do I recall Lorna Wing’s writing in Sainsbury’s Magazine as the original source… perhaps? That recipe was transcribed to a notebook at some point and made whenever an apple crumble didn’t feel quite dressy enough. The amaretti base – so much easier than faffing with pastry - is essentially a crumble mixture, and can be used as such, if you don’t fancy slicing or arranging apples. It works well with rhubarb and raspberries too, in crumble form. The alchemy here lies in slicing the apples finely enough that they soften and part-caramelise in the oven, as the buttered-almond base firms up.
Ingredients
110g unsalted butter (60g diced, 50g melted), plus extra for the tin
110g spelt or plain flour, wholemeal if liked, plus extra for the tin
¼ tsp fine salt
60g amaretti or ratafia biscuits, i.e. the crisp variety
100g golden caster sugar
4-5 eating apples, such as a Russet or Braeburn
A squeeze of lemon juice
½ tsp ground cinnamon
Crème fraiche, cream or ice cream, to serve
Method
Preheat the oven to 190°C, gas mark 5 or fan 170°C. Use a little extra to lightly butter the inside of a 23cm tart tin with a removable base. Dust sparingly with extra flour, tipping and turning the tin to coat, before tapping away the excess.
Put the 60g diced butter in a mixing bowl, setting the remaining 50g aside for later. Add the flour and salt to the bowl and gently rub together using your fingertips, until the mixture resembles rough sand. Roughly crush the amaretti or ratafia biscuits – they’re easy to crumble using your hands or a rolling pin – and stir into the buttery flour with 50g sugar. Tip the whole lot into the tart tin and press evenly across the surface of the tin. There will be just enough to cover the base and reach a little way up the sides. Don’t be concerned about the mixture not holding together in its raw state.
Peel the apples (this is optional, but gives a more refined finish to the tart and I almost-always do it). Using a small, sharp knife for dexterity, quarter each apple and slice the cores out in a half-moon. Repeat with all the apples, tossing in lemon juice before you start to slice. Being as precise as you can be, hold each quarter core-side-down and cut into fine slices, length-wise. Melt the remaining 50g butter and set aside with a pastry brush handy. Combine the remaining 50g sugar with the ground cinnamon in a small bowl and have that ready too. Working in concentric circles from the outside in, fan or flatten each sliced apple quarter out, like a hand of cards, and lay in the tin. Repeat with all the apples, overlapping the slices slightly as you work in towards the centre in an ever-tighter coil. It doesn’t matter if the arrangement isn’t neat, just try to make sure the slices are quite tightly-packed and cover the amaretti base completely. Brush the surface gently and generously with melted butter, being careful not to dislodge the apples. Dredge evenly with the cinnamon sugar, sit the tin on a baking tray and slide into the centre of the oven. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until deeply-golden and caramelised. Set aside to rest for at least 15 minutes before slicing. Ideally, this is a tart to make ahead of time, to serve at room temperature. The base will firm-up as it cools, similar to a buttery biscuit. Eat with creme fraiche, cream or ice cream.
More pictures below…
