Apple blueberry almond frangipane tart

A simply delicious apple blueberry almond frangipane tart recipe. Use store-bought or homemade pastry & seasonal fruit. The perfect dessert.

Jump to:

• Ingredients
• Instructions
• Variations
• Serving
• Recipe

The buttery pastry crumbles like a sandcastle falling and begins to melt as soon as it hits your tongue. 

The light fluffy sweet almond filling makes you close your eyes and roll them towards the heavens as you savour every mouthful. 

Just when you think it can’t get better your teeth burst a bubble of tart fruit. 

Where does such a wonderful thing exist? 

My first ever meeting with this luscious tart was on my trip out bush to Jocelyn Hancock’s farm and the tart was made by the pasty queen herself.

Ever since that day I’ve been dreaming of the moment I get to savour something so perfect. 

When mum asked me to be in charge of dessert for our Easter lunch I knew there had to be a tart along with the requisite doses of chocolate. 

A few weeks ago I earmarked a recipe for apple frangipane tart that looked similar to the filling Jocelyn had baked for us at the farm. 

Spotting a few blueberries in mum’s fridge I decided to go all out and create apple and blueberry frangipane tart. 

Outrageously adventurous I know!

Unfortunately I ran out of time to make my own short crust pastry to take to the coast. 

Mum doesn’t have a mixer or food processor up there (tell her she needs one please, she won’t listen to me!) and I’m just not confident enough to make pastry by hand quite yet so I settled for the next best thing – Careme pastry. 

I really wish I’d made the time to make my own pastry because while the Careme version was good, it just wasn’t quite a match for the light, fluffy filling that tasted every bit as good as Jocelyn’s version.

Ingredients

To make this apple tart recipe you will need: 

• 1 packet of sweet shortcrust pastry - or make your own
• Butter - softened at room temperature
• Caster sugar 
• Eggs - preferably free range
• Almond meal - also known as almond flour or ground almonds
• Plain white flour - spelt flour could also be used instead of plain flour
• Apple - use whichever variety you like - quartered, cored and sliced very finely
• Blueberries - fresh blueberries are preferable but frozen is ok if that's all you have
• Extra butter - melted
• Icing sugar - here's how to make your own icing sugar

Instructions

1. Start by greasing and lining the tart pan (11x33cm rectangular loose-bottomed tart tin). Pre heat oven to 180C fan-forced.
2. Prepare the pastry to blind bake according to the instructions on the packet. You will need to take it out of the freezer and into the fridge the night before. If you're using homemade pastry, you may need to weigh it down by placing pie weights in it on parchment paper. If you don't have pie weights you can use dry beans like kidney beans or chicpeas. 
3. While the pastry is baking, prepare the frangipane filling by beating the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Alternatively you could use a stand mixer. 
4. Add the eggs, one at a time and mix just until they're incorporated.
5. Carefully stir the almond meal and flour into the mixture then spread the frangipane mixture into the tart case using the back of a spoon.
6. It will seem like there's not enough but don't worry it rises quite a bit.
7. Arrange the apple slices and blueberries on top of the filling then brush the apples with the extra melted butter.
8. Bake the tart in a pre-heated 180C fan-forced oven for 30-35 minutes or until it is golden brown on top.
9. Leave the tart in the tin sitting on a wire rack to cool completely.
10. Dust with icing sugar before serving

Spreading the batter into the tin I had my doubts. 

How could something so gooey and not all that much of it rise to light airy goodness? 

I don’t have the answer to that, all I know is that it did. 

Variations

It was such a delicate filling and really would go nicely with whatever fruit you have on hand. 

Jocelyn’s tart used poached stone fruit fresh from her backyard orchard. 

I don’t quite have those resources so a simple apple and a few berries had to do me but it was still something special. 

A few other ideas to pop on top of the frangipane: 

• Raspberries
• Sliced figs 
• Any sort of stone fruit 
• Strawberries and lemon zest

I think you could even use chocolate if you wanted to be very adventurous. 

Serving

We served almandine tart for afternoon tea (sliced up on a serving plate) so just had it as is but, if serving for a decadent dessert some accompaniments might be: 

• Vanilla ice cream
• Crème fraiche
• Whipped cream

Store any leftover tart in an airtight container.

So simple yet so very delicious. Enjoy!

What about you? 

Have you ever tasted something and then spent months dreaming about tasting it again?

Recipe