Dutch Style

Apple Tart (Appeltaart)

Recipe / Danielle Minnebo

A traditional Dutch apple tart, or appeltaart as they say in Holland, is absolutely delicious and surprisingly easy to make. The pastry is thicker than any other pastry shell, which means the finished tart is crunchy on the outside but soft and cake-like on the inside.

Serves: 8–10

75g tapioca flour
150g buckwheat flour
150g brown-rice flour
75g blanched almond meal
150g coconut sugar
Pinch sea salt
Zest 1 lemon
180g butter, cut into cubes
2 eggs, beaten

Apple Filling

5 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored & quartered
1 tsp cinnamon
40g coconut palm sugar
20g tapioca flour
3 tbsp blanched almond meal

Preheat oven to 180°C and grease and line 20cm cake tin.

Prepare pie crust first: Add tapioca flour, buckwheat flour, brown-rice flour, almond meal, coconut sugar, sea salt and lemon zest to bowl. Mix until combined. Add cubes of butter and rub butter into flour mixture with fingertips.

In separate bowl, add 2 eggs and beat them. Add 1½ eggs to flour and butter crumb mixture and save remaining egg.

Mix together well until dough forms, cover and place in fridge to firm up.

Slice each apple quarter into 3 slices. You should end up with 800g of peeled and sliced apples. Add apples to large mixing bowl along with cinnamon, coconut palm sugar and tapioca flour. Mix until apples are well coated and set aside.

Remove pastry dough from fridge, remove ¼ of dough and set aside. Dust surface with flour and roll out remaining dough until it’s 1½cm thick. Carefully transfer dough to cake tin and press into base and up around sides. Don’t worry if dough breaks; just press it back into place. Make sure dough lining cake tin is approx. 1cm thick in base and around sides.

Sprinkle almond meal across base of pastry. Place all of sliced apples into pastry shell. Mixture should reach right to top of cake tin.

Take reserved ¼ pastry dough, dust surface with flour again and roll out dough until 1cm thick. Transfer dough to top