Gluten Free Vegan Autumn Apple Tart
This is an incredibly delicious tart – not too sweet, fabulous crumb and much lower in fat and sugar than a traditional apple pie. Have fun baking!
We picked this apple the day the pie was made!
To Make Tart Filling:
7 small to medium green apples – we used local apples from our friend’s tree picked that day
¼ cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
½ cup sugar
½ teaspoon orange peel, dehydrated
1 heavy tablespoon corn starch, potato starch or arrowroot powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon high quality cinnamon
½ teaspoon sea salt
Peel, core and thinly slice the apples. Place in bowl with all above ingredients. Stir to fully coat apples in seasonings.
Allow apples to soak while you make the crust, stirring occasionally.
This is what the crust looks like before you press it into the pan for the pie. Don’t forget to save some for the streusel topping.
Crust:
2 cups Be Free Bakers Jen’s Blend All Purpose GF Flour Mix
¼ cup sugar
½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon high quality cinnamon
½ teaspoon orange peel, dehydrated
1 stick Earth Balance Buttery Stick or Butter, cut into pieces, plus ½ stick cut into dots for topping just prior to putting in the oven
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
¼ cup soy or coconut creamer
Mix together all dry ingredients with whisk in medium bowl.
Add apple cider vinegar to creamer in a small bowl and allow to rest for a few moments. It might curdle. This is good.
Drop butter pieces into dry ingredients and smash dough. I enjoy the feel of the dough, so I used clean hands to blend, but a hand mixer on slow will work well also.
Add the creamer mixture slowly, blending as necessary to a somewhat crumbly texture that sticks together when squished.
Put a piece of parchment paper into a 9” or 10” tart pan, round or square, and drop about 2/3 of the dough into the pan.
While you can use a rolling pin to flatten the dough between two sheets of parchment paper, transferring it to the pan later, we have found it far easier to simply press the dough into the pan with our hands, allowing about an inch to come up the sides.
If you want to get fancy, feel free to create a pretty edge. As you can see, I did the rustic edge look.
IMPORTANT NEXT STEP:
Once you have pressed the crust into the desired thickness and shape, put it in an oven at 350°F and pre-bake for 8-9 minutes. Do not allow to brown.
After removing crust from oven, let cool slightly, and spoon DRAINED apples into pre-cooked crust, reserving liquid.
Top with remaining crumbled dough pieces throughout top to make a streusel topping.
Drizzle remaining liquid over top of streusel, and dot top with very small pieces of Earth Balance or butter – approximately ½ stick.
Place in oven for first 20 minutes at 350°F. Then lower temperature to 325°F and cook for remaining 35 minutes.
Check periodically to ensure it doesn’t brown.
This apple tart actually tastes better the next day after flavors have had time to meld.
The perfect end of summer dessert that can be made on a weekend and enjoyed throughout the week – if it lasts that long!
Enjoy!
Jennifer, Be Free Bakers
Be Free 