Honey Apple Tart

Fall is most definitely here in Georgia. It’s been kind of teasing us for weeks—we’d have gorgeous 70-80 degree days, but then it would randomly get down to 40 at night, only to be back at 75 a few days later. Then we got a little rain and I was afraid that the leaves would all fall off the trees before turning the beautiful colors we usually get.

That would have made me so sad, because fall down here in the South is one of my favorite things.

The trees turn every shade imaginable between red, orange, yellow, and green, there’s the smell of a bite in the air without it being really cold, the days are still beautiful but you can turn your fireplace on at night. And now we finally got it.

I’m trying to take as many walks as possible before it gets cold, just get outside and appreciate how beautiful things are this time of year.

My mom was in town last weekend and we took two long walks on the various national recreation trails, breathing deeply and just taking our time. It’s been dark when I get to work and dark when I leave, so seeing the sun was amazing.

When my mom came, she brought down a bunch of apples from my grandma’s apple tree in Kansas. They’re really small, soft, sweet apples, perfect for recipes that don’t require long cooking or baking.

We were making an epic dinner on Sunday and decided to top it off with an apple tart. Normally we’d make a crisp or something, but that didn’t seem to do these apples justice.

I poked around on Pinterest for a while and found this apple honey tart, which was perfect in its simplicity. Since the rest of our dinner was so time-consuming, we wanted a dessert that was very easy and could be assembled quickly.

The texture and flavor was amazing—it was so pretty and delicious that you’d think that it required a bunch of ingredients and time. But we the only thing that took time was slicing the apples, everything else took maybe 5-10 minutes, tops. 

Position the rack in the center of the oven. Preheat the oven to 400°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Spread out the puff pastry on the baking sheet and press the two pieces together so they form a long rectangle. Using a fork, prick the center parts of the pastry here and there so air can escape.

Action shot!

No, really, this was the only picture of the apples I got because we were also finishing up the boeuf bourguignon and garlic mashed potatoes, but I wish I could show you how darling these apples were.

Arrange the apples in an overlapping fashion (using the picture as guide) in rows, leaving about a half-inch border of pastry all around.

Brush the apples and even the edges of the pastry with the melted butter. Sprinkle the sugar evenly over the apples (not the edges of pastry).

Bake the tart for about 25 to 30 minutes, until the pastry is golden brown.

When you remove it from the oven, use a pastry brush to dab the warmed honey over the entire tart (apples and the edges as well).

Serve immediately, as this tart is best as close to baking time as possible. It’s flaky and crispy and sweet.

I definitely recommend eating it all right away, but it’s fine the next day. I took some to work as my breakfast, but only at the part with apples—puff pastry is just never as good the next day.

Other apple sweets you’ll love:

• The Best Homemade Apple Butter Ever
• Pear-Apple Pie With Streusel Topping
• Apple Pie Scones
• Fresh Apple Cake with Honey Glaze

Honey Apple Tart with Puff Pastry

• 2 sheets of frozen puff pastry (a regular package), thawed
• 2-4, 8-ounce apples, nice soft sweet ones like Honeycrisp or Golden Delicious, halved, cored, and very thinly sliced (about ⅛-inch thin); recipe says to peel them but we didn’t and it gave them a really pretty look
• 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter, melted
• 2 tablespoons of sugar
• 2 tablespoons of honey, warmed