Apple season is in full swing! We highly recommend enjoying the crisp Fall weather while picking fresh apples straight from the tree or at your local farmer’s market. I LOVE apples and I LOVE cheese. They go together perfectly like peanut butter and jelly! For last week’s Apples to Apples dinner, I baked an apple tart using my favorite pie crust with a savory twist. I’m excited to share the recipe with you!
This Apple and Brie tart has sweet and salty notes. It is also incredibly easy to make, despite its intricate rose design. The dried figs and walnuts beneath the creamy cheese add additional sweetness and nuttiness. The floral design impressed my guests. We paired the tart with a Pinot Gris from Alsace.
Even if you aren’t an iron chef, you can make this yourself with a few tips.
- Use a sweet, crisp apple. I used honeycrisp, but you could also substitute with ambrosia or pink lady
- The key to buttery, flakey pie crust is very cold ingredients – freeze butter in small chunks and use ice cold water when making your dough
- Slice apples thinly
- Cook apples in a brown sugar and brandy sauce and then arrange into a rose and sprinkle the remaining sauce over each tart
- This tart can be served as an appetizer, brunch dish or dessert
Similar to cheese and wine, apples can run the gamut in terms of flavor. Here is your cheat sheet for apple, cheese and wine pairings:
- Fuji: Syrupy, sweet Fuji apples pair with sharp, salty Gorgonzola cheese and a medium-bodied Pinot Noir wine
- Gala: The sweet flavor of bright yellow and red Gala apples is enhanced with a creamy goat cheese and a light Pinot Grigio
- Granny Smith: Green, tart Granny Smith apples combine well with a sharp Blue cheese and a medium-bodied Merlot
- Honey crisp: Refreshing Honeycrisp apples pair with a sweet and creamy Brie cheese and a Pinot Gris
“Love doesn’t grow on trees like apples in Eden – it’s something you have to make.”––Joyce Cary
Pie Crust
Adapted from Simply Recipes
Yield: 8 Individual Tarts
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling
- 1 cup (2 sticks or 8 ounces) unsalted butter, very-cold, cut into 1/2 inch cubes*
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 6 to 8 Tbsp ice water
Equipment
Directions
- Combine flour, salt, and sugar in a Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer with hook attachment
- Add butter and pulse 6 to 8 times, until mixture resembles coarse meal, with pea size pieces of butter
- Add ice water 1 Tbsp at a time, pulsing until mixture just begins to clump together
- If you pinch some of the crumbly dough and it holds together, it’s ready. If the dough doesn’t hold together, add a little more water and pulse again. Note that too much water will make the crust tough.
- Work the dough just enough to form 9 disks, do not over-knead. You should be able to see little bits of butter in the dough. These small chunks of butter are what will allow the resulting crust to be flaky. Sprinkle a little flour around the disks. Wrap each disk in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour, and up to 2 days.
- Remove one crust disk from the refrigerator. Let sit at room temperature for 5-10 minutes in order to soften just enough to make rolling out a bit easier. Roll out with a rolling pin on a lightly floured surface to a circle; about 1/8 of an inch thick.
- Place discs onto tart pans
Brie and Apple Tart
Adapted from Mommy Outside the Box
Ingredients
- 9 dried figs
- 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts
- 3/4 pound of Brie
- 5 honeycrisp apples
- 1/2 cup of brown sugar
- 4 tablespoons of Brandy or your favorite liquor or apple juice
- Sea salt (or coarse salt)
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
- Slice the dried figs and then arrange them over the crust
- Sprinkle the walnuts over the figs
- Cut the Brie into thin slices and then remove the rind
- Place sliced Brie over figs and walnuts
- Cut apples into thin slices
- In a small bowl combine the brown sugar, pinch of salt and brandy
- Pan fry apples in half of the brown sugar and brandy sauce
- Arrange apples in into a rose pattern starting from the middle
- For the “rose” you will want your apple slices to be quite thin so they don’t break when you are bending them. The closer to the middle you get the more you will have to bend them.
- Sprinkle remaining brown sugar and brandy sauce over the tarts
- Put your tarts in the oven and bake for about 20 minutes or until the crust is golden and the Brie is bubbling
I love apples! writing a dissertation there are a lot of recipes with apples. often I cook and raduyu their loved ones
Brie and apples are always a fantastic combo! This sounds just delicious
These apple tarts look delicious. I love that you included a pairing guide with this recipe as well.
This sounds so delicious. We are big apple fans here.
I love this apple tart recipe! Such a cozy and unique twist on it. My family loved it and we will make it again.
Oh, these are not only adorable, but look like the perfect treat. Can’t wait for apple season.