Upside Down Apple Tarts
Elegant individual tarts featuring Golden Delicious apples arranged over vanilla pastry cream in a puff pastry shell, finished with a glossy corn syrup glaze. These impressive desserts are flipped during baking to achieve a beautiful caramelized finish.
Ingredients
- •½ piece vanilla bean, split lengthwise
- •1¼ cups whole milk
- •⅓ cup sugar, divided
- •1½ tablespoons all-purpose flour
- •1 tablespoon cornstarch
- •1 piece whole large egg
- •1 piece large egg yolk
- •1½ tablespoon unsalted butter, cut into bits
- •2 pounds Golden Delicious apples
- •1 pound frozen all-butter puff pastry
- •3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- •3 tablespoons light corn syrup
- •2 teaspoons water
- •Equipment
- •vanilla ice cream
Cooking Instructions
- 1.
Scrape seeds from vanilla bean with tip of a paring knife into a small heavy saucepan. Add pod, milk, and 3 Tbsp sugar and bring just to a boil, whisking to dissolve sugar.
5 min
- 2.
Meanwhile, whisk together flour, cornstarch, remaining sugar, and a pinch of salt in a bowl. Whisk together whole egg and yolk in another bowl, then whisk in flour mixture until smooth.
5 min
- 3.
Add one third of hot milk mixture to yolk mixture (to temper) in a slow stream, whisking, then add to milk mixture remaining in saucepan, whisking. Bring custard to a boil over medium heat, whisking, then boil, whisking, 2 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in butter until melted.
10 min
- 4.
Transfer pastry cream to a bowl and chill, its surface covered with wax paper, until no longer hot, at least 30 minutes.
30 min
- 5.
Preheat oven to 400°F with racks in upper and lower thirds. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.
10 min
- 6.
Peel and core apples, then cut into 1/8-inch-thick wedges.
10 min
- 7.
Roll out pastry on a lightly floured surface with a lightly floured rolling pin 1/8 inch thick and cut out 8 (6-inch) rounds using inverted bowl or plate as a guide. Punch out center of each round with cookie cutter and transfer to baking sheets.
15 min
- 8.
Discard vanilla pod and transfer pastry cream to pastry bag. Snip a 1/3-inch opening and pipe pastry cream onto pastry in a ring around center (there will be some cream left over). Arrange overlapping apple slices on pastry, covering the cream, then brush with melted butter.
20 min
- 9.
Bake tarts, switching position of sheets halfway through, until edges of apples are pale golden, about 15 minutes.
15 min
- 10.
Meanwhile, stir together corn syrup and water until smooth.
2 min
- 11.
Remove baking sheets from oven and flip each tart over with a large spatula. Generously brush pastry with some of corn syrup mixture.
5 min
- 12.
Continue to bake, switching position of sheets halfway through, until pastry is shiny and golden, about 15 minutes more. Cool 10 minutes.
25 min
- 13.
Serve tarts, pastry side up, warm or at room temperature.
2 min