Skip to main content
Dessert

Apple Tarts

Apple tarts made with boiled apples, egg yolks, lemon, butter, sugar, and puff pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Apple and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,551 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Apple Tarts

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the filling

  1. Peel, quarter, core, and boil the apples in ½ cup of water until very soft.

  2. Mash the apples until smooth.

  3. Mix the mashed apples with egg yolks (or whole eggs), lemon juice and rind, butter, and sugar.

Bake and top

  1. Line small tart tins with puff pastry and fill with the apple mixture.

  2. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 5 minutes.

  3. Beat the egg whites with powdered sugar and spread the beaten egg whites on top of the tarts.

  4. Return the tarts to the oven to brown slightly.

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 + lemontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,551 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,706 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Tart apples
Cook down to a soft pulp that forms the body of the filling.
Egg yolks or whole eggs
Bind the apple mixture and help it set as it bakes.
Butter
Adds richness and a smoother, softer texture to the filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps it brown in the oven.
Lemon juice and rind
Add acidity and fragrance that balance the sweetness of the apples.
Egg whites
Whipped with powdered sugar to form a topping that browns lightly in the oven.

The step that matters

Returning the tarts to the oven. The meringue-style topping browns quickly once the tarts are back in the oven, so it can scorch if left unattended. Watch it closely and remove the tarts as soon as the top is lightly golden.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, lemon, butter, sugar):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Raspberryfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, lemon, butter, sugar. 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.

More apple tarts recipes

Pippin 3 See all 40 →

You might also like

Apple PuddingApple Pudding256 recipesLemon CakeLemon Cake228 recipesLemon IceLemon Ice147 recipesLemon SherbetLemon Sherbet103 recipes