Skip to main content
Dessert

Spiced Apple Tart

A tart filled with stewed apples, dates or prunes, sugar, and cinnamon, baked in pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Apple and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,598 recipes. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. The science ↓

Spiced Apple Tart

Oven, in the book's wordsA fairly hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a fairly hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the filling

  1. Cut up the apples, dates, or prunes.

  2. Add a little water, cinnamon, and sugar.

  3. Stew until tender.

Assemble the tart

  1. Make the pastry.

  2. Divide it into three pieces, with one piece larger than the others.

  3. Roll out the larger piece into a long strip.

  4. Line a greased or floured tart ring with it.

  5. Roll out the second piece.

  6. Fit it into the bottom of the tart.

  7. Place the apple mixture in the tart.

  8. Cover with the third piece of pastry.

  9. Trim the edges.

Bake and finish

  1. Bake for one hour at 400°F (200°C).

  2. When cool, ice or sift with sugar.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  2. Dates + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together283 recipes

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

  3. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Apple + datestop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together119 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together16,478 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Apples
Provide the bulk of the filling and tart flavor when stewed until soft.
Dates or prunes
Add natural sweetness and a soft, chewy texture to the filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps it stew to a glossy, thick consistency.
Spiced pastry
Forms the crust that encloses the filling and browns during baking.

The step that matters

Stew until tender. The fruit must be fully softened before baking, because raw or firm pieces stay hard in the oven and release less juice, leaving the filling dry or uneven.

Swap the dates

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, sugar, cinnamon):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Pearfits better
  3. Quincefits better
  4. Datesthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, sugar, cinnamon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

You might also like

Apple PuddingApple Pudding256 recipesApple CakeApple Cake80 recipesApple MeringueApple Meringue75 recipesCinnamon RollsCinnamon Rolls71 recipes