Apple & Cardamom Custard Tart

 Last

 year at this time I was writing on another website as well as here. One of the recipes that I posted over there, but not over here was this delectable Apple & Cardamom Custard Tart.  

I have always regretted not posting it here. It surely belonged here and so today I am righting that wrong.  Today I am sharing it here so that my English Kitchen readers can enjoy it as well.

Its a beautiful tart and I remember being very proud of how it turned out. I thought it was perhaps one of the most beautiful things I had ever created!

 

Its actually quite a simple tart to make.  The base is ready-made puff pastry.  I like to use an all butter puff pastry if I can get it.  Regular puff pastry can sometimes have a bit of a chemical taste to it. 

All butter puff pastry is the way to go.  Everything natural, nothing artificial.

The filling for the tart is a mix of ready made custard, egg yolks and mascarpone cheese. You mix this together and add some vanilla and ground cardamom before chilling it in the refrigerator.

 

While that is chilling (along with the tart base) you get on with the business of slicing the apple. That is probably the fiddliest part of the recipe.  Slicing the apples.

You need so slice them thin enough that you can easily manipulate them. Even then it will be a bit hard.  I found it easiest to work with very thin half slices of apple.

They were much more malleable.  You need to be able to roll them into rosettes, so thin and malleable is the way to go.

 Once your base and filling have chilled you are ready to start building the tart.  You will need to spread the custard/mascarpone filling into the pastry base.

Then you just start rolling the apple slices into rosettes, sticking them down into the cream filling.  The cream filling holds them in place. You don't need to be overly pedantic about this. 

Just make as many whole rosettes as you can and then fill in the spaces around them with smaller rosettes.  You can even fill the spaces in with curls.

 

Trust me when I say, it will come out beautiful no matter what. You don't need perfection here. It will look beautiful no matter what.

I can remember being so worried that it would come out looking messy or ugly if I didn't get every single rosette perfect.  I probably spent far more time on this than I should have.

In the end it looked beautiful, despite its imperfections.  It really did.  I felt really proud of what I had accomplished and a bit silly for having worried about it.

 

See what I mean?  That doesn't look bad at all.  Its quite pretty actually. You get some really pretty perfect looking rosettes ad some not so pretty wonky looking rosettes. Truth be told, they shift a bit in the oven while baking.

You really do need to make sure that your apple is sliced thin enough that they will cook in the prescribed length of cooking time.  You may think even so it doesn't look like much, but wait. 

A light dusting of icing sugar brings this tart fully to life.  It changes something interesting looking into something quite magical and beautiful.

 

But looks isn't everything. What does it taste like?   I can tell you, it is delicious!  You get the buttery flaky puff pastry on the bottom 

That custard filling is beautiful.  Its rich and indulgent.  It tastes like vanilla with just a hint of cardamom.  I think the richness is largely due to the mascarpone cheese. 

It ends up being a cross between a custard and a cheesecake.  Rich and velvety. Incredibly delicious. I could eat that filling all on its own with nothing else at all.

 

The apple is a bit of tart and a bit of sweet.  It gets a tiny bit caramelized because of the fruit sugar soak that you put the slices in before you start rolling them.

It has a dual purpose, both for flavour and a bit of sweetness as well as maintaining the lovely white colour of the apple flesh. You could also add a bit of cinnamon or even more ground cardamom to give them a bit more flavour. 

But really they are quite delicious all on their own. Just as they are.  I seldom do fancy things like this really. I am quite lazy most of the time.  That's why I wanted to bring this tart over here.

 

 

I actually felt that it deserved to showcased here along with my other creations.  To show you that I am quite capable of doing fancy, fiddly stuff should I choose to do so.  That's just not how I like to eat in the main, or even to cook in the main.

 

It has its place, yes.  Fiddly does have its place. In the everyday scheme of things however,  I really prefer to keep things simple. I am quite an unpretentious person. I have simple values and I like things in my every day life to be fairly simple as well.

Every now and then however, I do like to pull out the boat and show something extra special.  This was on of those times. Enjoy as you may not see anything like this again for a long time! haha

Yield: 6 - 8

Author: Marie Rayner

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Apple & Cardamom Custard Tart

A classic combination of flavours in one deliciously stunning dessert. Serve with pouring cream, or whipped cream

prep time: 1 Hourcook time: 50 Mintotal time: 1 H & 50 M

Ingredients:

• 1 pound of all butter puff pastry
• 1 1/3 cups (330g) ready made custard
• 3/4 cup (180g) mascarpone cheese
• 2 large free range egg yolks
• 1 tsp vanilla paste
• 1/4 tsp ground cardamom
• 4 medium red skinned sweet eating apples
• 1 TBS fine sugar
• 1 TBS fresh Lemon Juice

To serve:

• Icing sugar to dust
• pouring or whipped cream

Instructions:

1. Butter a 9 ½ inch round loose-based fluted tart-tin. Roll the pastry between two sheet of baking paper into a round large enough to line the bottom of the tin and up the sides.
2. Whisk the custard, mascarpone, egg yolks, vanilla paste, and cardamom together in a bowl until well combined. Cover and place in the refrigerator until well chilled.
3. Core and half the apples lengthwise. Cut into thin half-moons. Toss together in a bowl with the fruit sugar and lemon juice.
4. Spread the custard mixture in the pastry base. Arrange the apple slices on top of the custard, slightly overlapping them into attractive rosette shapes. Drizzle with any juices left in the bowl.
5. Preheat the oven to 325°F.
6. Bake in the preheated oven for 50 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown and the apples cooked. Cool and then refrigerate for 1 hour prior to serving.
7. It may seem a bit fiddly, but you will soon get the hang of it, and trust me when I say that the impressed look on your guest’s faces when you serve it to them will be well worth any extra efforts utilized.

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