Tarte Nougat-Pommes

Oh! The pictures I have for this post! There was something about the slightly sweet and lemony apples and the slippery, sugary almond nougat that made me grab my camera and really document this incredible tart ... and it all started here ...

Linda Dannenberg's homage to French baking has inspired me in the past. This book is packed with the best of the best breads, rolls, cakes, tarts, cookies, and sweets from some of the most famous Parisian shops.

Today, I opted for a take on Au Péché Mignon's Tarte Nougat - Pommes. The chefs would tell you that it's not the real deal from the patisserie, as I opted out of puff pastry and went for a straight cold water pastry shell. Well chilled and then blind baked, the pastry came out crisp and flaky.The apples in this tart are just barely sweetened, but there is liberal lemon juice and zest to give them a tart zing.
They still have a bite to them, as they are cut into thick-ish wedges. The almond nougat that graces the top of this tart gives a perfect crunch finish to each bite. It's a stellar tart all the way around!

While the tart pastry chills, apples get a quick sauté in butter and a sprinkling of sugars -  I used vanilla sugar and light brown sugar. The apple wedges are cooked in batches so that the pan is not crowded and the apples can take on a beautiful golden brown color. Then, the pan juices are drizzled over the finished apples and they receive just a ghost of a sprinkle of cinnamon.

Slivered almonds get a dose of vanilla sugar and white table sugar and a bit of egg white. Gently stirred together, the nougat mixture is set aside until just before the dressed tart is to go into a hot oven. It's key not to stir the nuts too vigorously. You don't want bubbles in the egg white sugar mixture or it puffs up instead of giving the nuts a shiny nougat glaze.

The apples are popped into the tart shell after it's been blind-baked for 20 minutes. I added several small teaspoons of apple jelly to make things a bit more sticky, as my apples are mid-winter apples and are not all that moist and juicy.

The shiny nougat mixture gets spread about, leaving some spots open for the apple juices to bubble up through. Again, a ghost of a sprinkle of cinnamon. The tart is popped into a hot oven and baked for about 35 minutes. I placed foil over the nougat at the 25 minute mark so that the tart would not overbrown.

Eh, voila! Perfect fare for our afternoon tea ... warm from the oven, it was such a treat!

I'm not going to post a complete recipe ... just know that I made my favorite tart crust, chilled it, rolled it out and blind baked it with pie weights. I used four large Cortland apples, about three tablespoons of butter, about four tablespoons of sugar (s),plus the juice and zest of half a lemon. The nougat mixture consisted of about half a cup of slivered almonds, a packet of vanilla sugar and another two tablespoons of table sugar, and about two large egg whites.  This made a tart that is eight inches in diameter ... just right for two people to knosh before it gets gooey and stale.