If you really want to “wow” your guests with a show-stopping, beautiful dessert, then this apple rose tart recipe is the recipe for you!
I will be the first to admit that I am not a pastry chef or a pastry artist, but this recipe tutorial for how to make an apple rose tart is simple to follow and turns out with a stunning presentation.
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Why you will love this rose apple tart recipe
First and foremost, you are going to love the beauty of this dessert. It looks almost too good to slice up and serve.
Second, you will love the flavors of this apple tart with the warm cinnamon sugar and the flaky tart crust.
This is a very fun recipe to make with kids, too. They will be so proud of themselves with how this tart turns out!
Tips
Just follow my tutorial and it will come out looking good. I use store bought puff pastry from the refrigerated section so that I don’t have to make it myself.
The main thing is to cut the apples very thin! If you cut them too thick, it will be hard to roll them up in the puff pastry, especially that first layer that needs to be rolled tightly.
Ingredients
The 2 main ingredients in this dessert are puff pastry and apples. I’ve been on a big puff pastry kick lately from these salted caramel apple dumplings to blueberry hand pies with goat cheese and now with this recipe for apple rose tart.
I don’t know why I love it so much. It’s easy since it is store-bought, so I don’t have to make some sort of crust from scratch, and it’s very delicious.
It really doesn’t taste like it’s pre-made at the store, but it tastes like you put hours of work into it. Puff pastry bakes to perfection and almost tastes like a croissant.
You can find puff pastry sheets in the refrigerated aisle of your grocery store in the same section as refrigerated biscuits in a can and near pizza dough.
It comes in a package and all you need to do is take it out of the package and unroll it!
Usually, when I bake with apples, I prefer to use tart green apples like Granny Smith apples, however for this recipe, you can add to the rose effect by using a red skin apple like Jonathan apples or red delicious. Just make sure you pick out firm apples.
You don’t want a soft apple that will render too much water while it bakes.
These are the ingredients for caramel apple rose tart:
- Puff pastry (1 package)
- Medium apples (Jonathan or Granny Smith)
- Butter
- Brown sugar
- Whole milk
- Cinnamon
- Salt
- Lemon juice
How to make apple rose tart
Preheat the oven to 400°F.
Wash your apples and cut them in half from top to bottom, leaving the skin on. Scoop out the core and seeds with a melon baller.
Lay the halved apple cut side down and thinly slice the apples width-wise so that they make an arch shape.
Place the thinly sliced apples in a bowl and toss it with several tablespoons of lemon juice, granulated sugar, cinnamon and salt.
Make sure they are evenly coated and set them aside.
I found it easier to toss the apples with the tips of my fingers, since a spoon was breaking the thin apples apart.
In a medium saucepan, melt the butter, milk and brown sugar together. Bring it to a boil for 1 minute then remove it from the heat.
Take the puff pastry sheet and unroll it on a clean working surface and remove the parchment paper. With kitchen shears or a pizza cutter, cut it lengthwise into 3 even pieces/strips. Each strip should be about 16”x3”.
Set the cut pastry strips side by side, overlapping them at the seam and pressing them together. You should end up with one long puff pastry strip that is approximately 4 ft long.
Take the melted butter and brown sugar mixture and with a spoon, put some on the top half of the puff pastry strip. You will be putting it on lengthwise. This caramel sauce will help your apple slices to stay in place when we roll the apple rose tart up.
Beginning on the left side of your pastry strip, take the thinnest apple slices you can find and place them on top of the brown sugar mixture that you spooned on the pastry strip.
Make sure to use the thinnest slices for the left side of the pastry, since that will be rolled the tightest.
Place the apples so that the skin side is hanging off the upper end of the pastry strip.
Put the first and thinnest apple slice on the upper left most corner, skin side up, then place the second apple slice oriented at the same angle but place it partly overlapping the first slice.
Continue overlapping the apples partway with the previous apple slice.
When you have lined your apples along the whole pastry strip, fold the bottom half of the pastry (the part that shouldn’t have any brown sugar on it) up onto the bottoms of the apple slices.
Beginning at the left, roll the pastry over on top of itself into a pinwheel. Carefully continue doing this until it is difficult to keep it sideways (I found it became difficult about ⅔’s of the way through).
At this point, place a piece of parchment paper under the rolled tart and orient it on top of the parchment paper.
There will still be some pastry yet left to roll. Now you can spin your rose tart while bringing the pastry strip up to meet it. Once it is all rolled up, you will see that it has taken the shape of a beautiful rose!
Carefully lift the rose tart with the parchment paper and place it in an 8” tart or cake pan. If your tart is smaller than that, just stuff some parchment paper around the tart so it will hold its shape while it bakes.
Take the remaining brown sugar mixture and carefully pour it all over the top of the apple rose. Place it in the oven and bake it for 35-40 minutes, until the pastry begins to brown. The edges of the apples also begin to brown.
Remove it from the oven and let it cool for about 10 minutes before serving. The presentation on this is beautiful!
Serving Suggestions
Serve this apple rose tart while it is still warm with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream. If you have any caramel sauce left over, drizzle it over the top.
FAQ’s
What kind of apples work best for baking?
It is better to use a tart and firm apple when baking. Firm apples render less water, and you can control the amount of sweetness when you start with tart apples.
More recipes with apples:
📖 Recipe
Rose Apple Tart
Equipment
- 8” tart pan or cake pan
- Parchment paper
- Melon Baller
Ingredients
- 1 store-bought puff pastry sheet 13.2 oz
- 2 medium apples firm
- 2 tablespoons butter
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ⅓ cup brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons whole milk
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoon granulated sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F.
- Wash the apples and cut them in half from top to bottom, leaving the skin on. With a melon baller, core the apple seeds and all.
- Place the apples cut-side-down and slice the apples very thinly width-wise and place them in a mixing bowl. The apple slices should look like little arches.
- Toss the thinly sliced apples with the cinnamon, salt, granulated sugar, and lemon juice.
- Make the caramel sauce by bringing the butter, brown sugar and milk to a boil for one minute. Remove it from the heat.
- Unroll the pastry sheet and cut it lengthwise into 3 long strips. They should be approximately 16”x3”. Lay them out lengthwise and press the seams together to create one long pastry strip (about 4 ft long).
- Carefully spoon the caramel sauce evenly along the top half of the pastry strip, lengthwise, leaving the bottom half without caramel sauce. There will be caramel sauce left over for later.
- Take the thin apple slices, and starting with the thinnest slices, place it in the upper left corner of the pastry strip. Place the apple slices on top of the caramel sauce so that the skin of the apple is hanging off the upper edge.
- Continue to layer apples along the length of the pastry strip, overlapping the apples partly on top of each other.
- Once the apples are layered along the whole length of the pastry, fold the lower half (the half without caramel sauce) up onto the apples.
- Beginning at the left side, roll the pastry into a pinwheel. Keep rolling until it becomes difficult to keep the apples in.
- Put a piece of parchment paper down on the work surface and set the partly rolled apple rose tart down on top of it. Now the rose tart should be oriented correctly, you can continue to bring the pastry strip up to the apple tart, turning the tart as you go to continue with the pinwheel shape.
- Once the rose is all rolled up into its shape, carefully lift the tart by the parchment paper and place it in an 8” cake or tart pan. If the tart is too small for the pan, stuff the parchment paper edges around it so that it holds its shape while it bakes.
- Take the rest of the caramel sauce and drizzle it over the top of the rose tart.
- Bake it in the oven for 35-45 minutes, until the puff pastry begins to brown and some of the edges of the apples begin to brown.
- Remove it from the oven and let it cool for 10 minutes. Serve while warm with vanilla ice cream and any leftover caramel sauce. Enjoy!
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