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french brown butter apple tart

Adapted from Food52


Servings 6 to 8 servings

Ingredients

  • 1 single crust recipe of your favorite pie or tart dough (or refrigerated prepared pie crust)
  • 6 to 8 Granny Smith apples
  • 3 tablespoons salted butter
  • 1/2 vanilla bean, halved & scraped of its seeds
  • 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
  • 1 egg
  • 3 tablespoons heavy cream
  • 4 tablespoons turbinado sugar
  • 3 tablespoons apricot jam, with any large chunks of fruit finely chopped

Instructions

  1. Take your dough out of the fridge 20 minutes before rolling it out (or 1 hour before if it's in the freezer).

  2. Preheat your oven to 450° F.  Fully cover a sheet pan (measuring at least 12 1/2-inches in width) with foil and place the pan in the oven to heat up.  

  3. Melt the butter in a small saucepan. Swirl it around a few times. It will foam and spatter. After 3 to 4 minutes, it will start to smell nutty. Don’t walk away. It’s ready when the sizzling quiets down and you see little brown bits drop to the bottom of the pan. Cool slightly. Whisk in the vanilla bean seeds, vanilla extract, and chopped rosemary.

  4. Cut a piece of parchment paper that's about a 12-inch square.  Roll out your dough into about a 12-inch round.  It doesn't need to be perfect -- you're going to fold over the edges.  Roll dough onto your rolling pin.  Unroll dough onto the piece of parchment.

  5. Using a very sharp knife or a mandoline, with the apple stem facing north, very thinly slice about 5 circles off of two opposing sides of the apple.  Stop once you hit the core.  Repeat with the remaining apples.  Save remaining apple and the outermost discs with lots of skin for applesauce or some other use.

  6. Starting about 2 inches in from the border of the rolled out dough, make a circle with the apple discs, having them overlap considerably.  Continue with a second layer that overlaps the larger circle.  Do a third and smaller circle.  And a fourth.  Finish it off with a few discs in the middle creating a flower pattern.  Paint all exposed apple surface with the brown butter vanilla rosemary mixture.  Fold the outer border of the dough in to enclose about half of the exterior edge of the outermost apple discs.  It can be creased and uneven to give it a rustic appearance.

  7. Whisk together egg and heavy cream.  Paint exposed border of dough with a thin layer of egg wash.  Refrigerate any leftover egg wash and save for your next tart or pie (it will last a few days).  Generously sprinkle the turbinado sugar all over the apples and the egg-washed dough.

  8. Carefully and quickly slide the tart (keeping it on the parchment) onto the preheated sheet pan.  Bake until apples are golden brown and the crust is crisp about 20 to 25 minutes

  9. Warm up the apricot jam.  Using a pastry brush, paint surface of the cooked apples with the warm jam.  Serve immediately.