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Dessert

Apple Tartlets

Apple tartlets are small pastry shells filled with apple marmalade and topped with beaten egg, baked and glazed.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,478 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Apple Tartlets

twenty tartlets

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pastry

  1. Roll out the tart pastry to a thin layer.

  2. Use a fluted cutter to stamp out twenty circular pieces.

  3. Line the tartlet pans with the pastry circles.

Fill and top

  1. Fill each tartlet with a spoonful of apple marmalade.

  2. Cover each tartlet with a mosaic of pastry.

  3. Brush the tops with beaten egg.

Bake and finish

  1. Place on a baking sheet and bake until lightly colored.

  2. Sprinkle fine sugar over the tartlets and use a salamander to give them a glossy finish.

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

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

  2. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Apple + eggtop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,461 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Apple and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 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

Tart pastry
Forms the crisp, buttery shell and lid that hold the filling.
Apple marmalade
Supplies the sweet, fruity filling that sets as the tartlets bake.
Egg
Beaten egg on the tops promotes browning and a glossy surface.
Fine sugar
Sugar on the tops caramelizes under the salamander, adding sweetness and shine.

The step that matters

Sprinkle fine sugar over the tartlets and use a salamander to give them a glossy finish.. Sugar melts and caramelizes quickly under high direct heat, so it can burn before the surface turns glossy. Watch closely and stop once it is amber.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Lemonfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, 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.

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