Apple tartlet
When putting together a Tasty Tartu dessert, the idea was to use the most common fruit in Estonia – the apple. Over the years, I have made hundreds of cheesecakes at Café Crepp, and you can still enjoy them at the café. Although I have been making them less often lately, I had the idea to combine apple and cheesecake. This is how this tartlet was born, which some diners found too simple, some found enjoyable, as it always is with diners. Toppings were added – the vanilla cream became a vanilla and espresso-flavored cream. Apple jelly was added, which gave the tartlet a slight sourness. And most importantly, the idea was to definitely flavor this dessert with the exotic Tonka bean, which we still have today, giving desserts a special note, primarily because people perceive the taste of this spice differently. Some recognize cloves in it, some marzipan, and others cinnamon or vanilla. Tonka bean was found in two places in this dessert, in the cheesecake cream and grated on topp when serving.
Preparation time: The entire dessert takes about 3-4 hours
Level: Medium
Quantity: About 15 tartlets, the creams will be enough for more tartlets
Ingredients:
Tartlet crust:
125 g cold butter
200 g flour
50 g sugar
2 egg yolks
A pinch of salt
2-3 tbsp cold water if needed
Espresso cream cheese buttercream:
100 g butter
200 g cream cheese
1 tsp vanilla sugar
300 g icing sugar
A pinch of salt
1 shot of espresso
Cheesecake cream:
250 g cream cheese
65 g sour cream
1 egg
A pinch of ground tonka bean
50 g sugar
Cookie crumb:
100 g butter
100 g sugar
0.5 tsp vanilla sugar
1 egg
0.5 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
130 g flour
Tree leaf cookie:
35g butter
35g honey
1 egg white
35g flour
Apple jelly:
1 large Granny Smith apple
250 ml green apple juice
3.5 sheets of gelatin
About 50 ml of lemon juice
Caramel:
50 g sugar
50 ml water
Preparation:
Tartlet crust:
- Chop the cold butter with the flour into pieces. You can also use a kitchen shredder for this (Crepis has a slightly broken one).
- Add the sugar and egg yolks. Knead the whole mixture into a dough by hand. Do not knead for too long. It is not necessary for the gluten to form a strong network here. The tartlet crust should be more fragile and more pleasant to eat. If necessary, add a tablespoon of cold water if the dough is too dry.
- Place the ring mold on a baking sheet covered with baking paper, roll the dough to about 4 mm thick, and press it into the ring mold. Trim the edges with a sharp knife to make them smooth.
Prick the bottom of the baskets with a fork to prevent the bottom from rising when you bake them. You can press it down, but it is better to make holes. - Place the filled molds in the refrigerator at -20 degrees C for 30 minutes. The dough must be completely cold and solid when baking, the dough will sink into the walls of the mold.
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C, place the basket dough on the baking sheet in the oven, and bake for about 20 minutes.
- Let the baskets cool for 10 minutes and remove the molds.
Store the finished baskets in a dry place at room temperature. Use them to make tartlets.
Espresso Cream Cheese Buttercream:
- Mix all ingredients together, cream cheese, powdered sugar, espresso, vanilla sugar, and room temperature butter.
- Mix the cream until smooth and transfer to a serving bowl.
Cheesecake Cream:
- Mix together cream cheese, sour cream, egg, a pinch of sea salt, and grated tonka bean powder.
- Mix everything until smooth and use it to make tartlets.
Cookie Crumb:
- Mix all ingredients, flour, baking powder, butter, sugar, egg, and sea salt into a smooth dough.
- Place the dough in pieces on a baking sheet and let it bake at 180 degrees C for about 10 minutes until the “cookie” starts to turn brown.
- Cool and crush with a food processor into smooth crumbs. Use to serve tartlets.
Leaf-shaped cookie:
- Mix butter, honey, flour, and egg white into a smooth dough.
- Fill the leaf-shaped molds with the resulting dough. When pouring the dough into the molds, make sure that the dough does not get thickly on the edges of the mold.
- Bake at 160 degrees for about 3-5 minutes. The cookies cook very quickly. Place the cookies on a tubular surface while hot to give them a convex shape.
Use the cookies to serve the dessert.
Apple jelly:
- Soak the gelatin in cold water for about 10 minutes.
- Peel and clean the apple, place it in a blender, add the green apple juice, and blend thoroughly until smooth.
- Heat the resulting mixture with the gelatin. Place it at +4 degrees C and let it set completely.
- Place the resulting jelly in a blender, add the lemon juice, and blend until very smooth.
- Transfer the resulting semi-liquid jelly to a piping bag and let it set for a few hours before using.
Use the jelly when serving the tartlets.
Caramel:
- Heat the sugar in a very small amount of water until the sugar melts and begins to brown. Let the caramel brown until it has the color, taste, and smell you like.
- Carefully add boiling water and mix until smooth. Use the caramel when making tartlets.
Baking the tartlets:
- Place the baskets on a baking sheet.
- Place 1 tbsp of Cheesecake Cream on the bottom of each basket.
- Cut the Granny Smith apple near the core, halve it, and slice it into very thin slices. Arrange the slices neatly on the cream layer at the bottom of the basket.
- Brush the apples lightly with caramel.
- Bake at 160 degrees C for 10 minutes. Cool and serve.
Serving the dessert:
- Place one tartlet in the middle of a plate.
- Pipe a circle of espresso cream cheese buttercream around the tartlet.
- Pipe a 2-3 cm apple jelly egg into the middle of the tartlet.
- Place a leaf-shaped cookie in the apple jelly.
- Shake the cookie crumbs onto the tartlet.
- Grate the tonka bean crosswise over the tartlet with a fine grater.
Ready!!
