Spiced Apple Two Bite Tarts

I love fall treats, but I can’t really justify making a whole apple pie for just my boyfriend and I; we would be eating it for days! So I love that this month’s Cooking Light had a recipe for mini spiced apple tarts that I can also share with friends. I adapted the recipe slightly, adding some more fall spices. I also didn’t have any 1% milk on hand so I substituted heavy cream. I also topped mine with mascarpone instead of crème fraîche because I thought it would taste great with these tarts.

These are really easy to make; the most difficult part (a.k.a. most time consuming) is dicing the apples. But you definitely want to cut them nice and small so that they fit in the tarts. You also need a mini cupcake tin for this, but you can adapt it to make normal cupcake sized ones if you wanted, just increase the baking time.

Ingredients:

• CRUST
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 1 tablespoon heavy cream
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 4.5 ounces all-purpose flour (about 1 cup)
• 1/3 cup very finely chopped toasted pecans
• Baking spray with flour
• FILLING
• 2 cups finely diced peeled Granny Smith apple (~4 apples)
• 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1/4 cup mascarpone

Add a little bit more than 1/3 cup of pecans to a small saute pan over medium heat. Cook until fragrant. Remove from heat and finely chop. Measure out to equal 1/3 cup and set aside.

Coat the 24 miniature muffin cups with cooking spray. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Add the sugar and butter to a large bowl. Beat with a mixer until combined.

Add the canola oil, heavy cream, vanilla extract, and salt and mix to combine for 1 minute or until well combined.

Lightly spoon the flour into a dry measuring cup and level with a knife. Add the flour and the toasted pecans to the bowl and beat until just combined.

My dough was pretty crumbly, so I added it to some plastic wrap and wrapped it tightly to form a ball.

Divide the dough among the prepared 24 miniature muffin cups, pressing the dough into the bottom of each cup and cup the sides. (I got about 20 out of it).

Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Cool in the pans on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Remove from the pan and cool completely on wire rack.

While waiting for the cups to cook, prepare the filling. Finely chop your apples. After each apple, I squeezed a bit of lemon juice and tossed it so that they wouldn’t brown.

Add 2 tablespoons sugar, cinnamon, allspice, ginger, cardamom, nutmeg, and salt and stir to combine.

Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a medium saute pan over medium heat. Add the apple mixture and cook for 5 minutes or until the apple is tender, stirring occasionally. Combine the cornstarch and 1 tablespoon water in a small bowl.

Stir the cornstarch mixture into the apple mixture, cooking for 1 minute or until the mixture thickens, stirring constantly. Add the apple mixture to a bowl and let cool to room temperature.

Spoon a heaping teaspoon of the apple mixture into each tart shell. Top with a 1/2 teaspoon of mascarpone.

These are perfect little bites! The crust adds so much more flavor that I had anticipated.

The apple mixture is basically what is in an apple pie so these have that wonderful comforting taste to them.

I liked the dollop of mascarpone on top to add some creaminess but it is optional.