Autumn – or Fall for our American readers – is apple season. And for this article, we’ve got a really quick and easy apple tart recipe – a la Turka, of course.
It also has the benefit of being completely delicious.
We all know the French are famous for their apple tarts (Tarte normande for example). But Turks also love their apple desserts and have very much adopted the apple tart.
Elmalı milföy tart – puff pastry apple tart – is sold in various guises in bakeries, patisseries and also as a street food.
Look out for the street food traders selling börek and there’s often an apple tart of some description on offer for those with a sweet rather than savoury tooth.
Apple Season
Apples are not, strictly speaking, a seasonal food in Turkey because you can pick them up on the local markets year round.
But, for many areas in the country, this is the time of the apple harvest.
The villages around Eğirdir are a big grower and supplier of Turkey’s apples. And it was mid September when we visited the area.
The trees in the apple orchards were weighed down with huge red and green apples.
On the roadsides, apple mountains sat waiting to be picked up by the passing carts.
And progress along the narrow village roads was slow as we crawled along behind tractors pulling their heavily-laden apple carts.
Locally, when we shop at Çalış Market or Fethiye market, this is the time of year when there is usually a variety of apples to choose from.
Golden Delicious apples and Granny Smith apples often make an appearance.
But we also get homegrown Turkish varieties, too.
How We Make Turkish Apple Tart
Well, regular readers will know we don’t really have a sweet tooth.
But we do occasionally dabble with the world of Turkish desserts.
And we like this simple dessert because it mixes savoury (your puff pastry dough) with sweet (your apple slices – and as much or as little sugar as you like).
Our elmalı milföy tart is also actually a bademli elmalı milföy tart because we’re also going to be adding some flaked almonds for a bit of contrast in texture and extra flavours.
Quick & Easy
This is an apple tart recipe that you can easily cook up on a week might if you fancy a quick dessert or a sweet snack.
In Turkey, frozen puff pastry is mainly sold in oblong sheets that can be divided into two squares so you can either make individual square apple tarts or one oblong and slice it up later.
Whilst you’re letting your puff pastry sheets defrost to room temperature, you can get your egg wash ready by separating an egg yolk from the white and thinly slicing your apples.
We find one medium to large apple is enough for two individual square tarts.
Prepare On Your Baking Sheet Or Oven Tray
Crumple some greaseproof paper (parchment paper) and place it onto your oven tray.
(It behaves better when crumpled).
And then we place our puff pastry sheets onto that to start building our apple tarts.
After pricking the pastry with a fork, leaving a border around the edges, we brush the egg wash over the pastry with a more generous amount around the edges for a golden, flaky crust.
Then a good sprinkling of cinnamon for some warmth and spice to the flavour.
In Turkey, cinnamon is widely used in desserts. And when it comes to apple recipes, cooks are very generous with the amount they use.
We tend to be a bit more conservative!
Which Kind Of Apples?
The best apples to use for your tart recipe are firm, juicy ones that are going to offer a bit of resistance to the heat of your oven.
We used firm Golden Delicious apples that were already very sweet.
And, as we don’t have a very sweet tooth, didn’t add any sugar.
If you’re using tart apples like Granny Smith, we’d recommend a sprinkling of brown sugar over your apples.
Some people go so far as to toss their apple slices in the sugar. Work to your own taste.
Layer your apples onto the puff pastry sheets, leaving a border.
And then sprinkle with the flaked almonds.
Then it’s into the oven for 15-20 minutes until your apple juices are sizzling and the tart crusts have risen to become a lovely golden brown.
Serving Your Apple Tart
An easy dessert that can either be eaten hot, straight from the oven or left to cool and stored in an airtight container for future days.
We love to eat our puff pastry apple tart hot, fresh from the oven with a light dusting of caster sugar.
If you want to make a more substantial dessert, of course your puff pastry apple tart will be delicious served with ice cream or fresh cream.
Make It Festive
You can play around with different fruits rather than just doing a simple apple tart recipe.
Casting our minds to Turkish-themed Christmas food ideas, once you’ve made your mince pies, you can use up your leftover mincemeat to make mince and apple tarts.
Make your classic apple tarts as in our recipe and then add a heaped teaspoonful of mince over your apple filling before topping with flaked almonds. Always a good idea!
A yummy festive treat!
Our Puff Pastry Apple Tart Recipe – Elmalı Milföy Tart
Let’s make puff pastry apple tart with cinnamon and almond.
Quick & Easy Puff Pastry Apple Tart Recipe – Elmalı Milföy Tart
Equipment
- 1 sharp knife
- 1 sieve
- 1 baking sheet or oven tray
- 1 greaseproof or parchment paper
- 1 pastry brush
Ingredients
- 3 medium apples (approximately 600 grams in total)
- 300 grams all-butter puff pastry (cut into 6 squares, if desired)
- 1 tablespoon flaked almonds
- 2 teaspoons caster sugar (for sprinkling)
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (or more to taste)
- 1 egg yolk
Instructions
- First of all, preheat your oven to 200 degrees Celsius and place your puff pastry sheets on a flat surface to defrost to room temperature.
- Meanwhile, cut your apples in half from top to bottom and thinly slice them, flat side down, slicing off any tough core areas.
- Take your greaseproof paper (parchment paper) and place it onto your oven tray or baking sheet.
- Now place your defrosted pastry sheets onto the tray and prick with a fork, leaving a border around the edge.
- Nıow brush your pastries with the egg wash, paying extra attention to the edges.
- Sprinkle your cinnamon over the pastries.
- Now layer your apple slices along your pastry sheets, allowing them to overlap and leaving a gap around the perimeter of your puff pastry dough.
- Sprinkle the apples with your almond flakes and now place your tray into the centre of the preheated oven.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes until the apple slices have released their juices and you have golden brown flaky crusts around the edge.
- Remove from the oven and sieve the caster sugar over your apple tarts.
- Serve immediately or leave to cool and store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to three days.
Notes
- In Turkey, frozen puff pastry is sold in oblong sheets weighing 100 grams each so we use a total of 300 grams of pastry for our apple tarts.
- We use ‘all-butter’ puff pastry for a richer flavour and lighter texture.
- We use sweet Golden Delicious apples for our apple tarts and we find a sprinkling of caster sugar (superfine sugar) at the end gives us an apple tart to suit our taste. If you are using tart apples or you have a sweet tooth, you can sprinkle your apple tarts with some brown sugar before baking.
- Nutritional information is calculated by a 3rd party API and is intended to be used as a rough guide only. Values will differ depending on your ingredients. Please do your own due diligence if you have any particular dietary requirements.