Crazy easy apple tarts might be better than apple pie

If people knew how fall off a log easy it was to make these easy apple tarts, they might not ever make apple pie again.

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Shots fired, I know. Seriously though, all you need is some sliced apples, a little bit of flavor from cinnamon sugar and rum popped on top of a square of puff pastry and the oven does the rest. They take about 15 minutes to put together and 20 to bake. My people, no pie can make such a claim.

You can gild the lily with a little pumpkin ice cream, whipped cream frosting, pastry cream, or caramel sauce, but everyone will be just as happy to sit around the hot pan eating these little tarts in your kitchen in their socks.

I for one love quick, simple desserts for Thanksgiving that don’t take too much time and can easily be made ahead. Nobody needs to wrestle with dessert when you’re trying to make the perfect mashed potatoes, and honey, you should always want the perfect mashed potatoes! These apple tarts are on that list of quick Thanksgiving desserts right up there with cranberry tarts, mini pumpkin pies, pumpkin hand pies, apple crumble bars.

Easy Apple Tarts

How I convince you to skip making apple pie and make apple tarts instead

1. Quick!: There’s no prebaking any crusts, no fussing over the edges of your pie crust, making sure it doesn’t overbake. Just slice up your apples, flavor them and pile them on top of puff pastry. That’s it! For something this fast, they shouldn’t taste this good, but boy howdy do these little guys deliver big on flavor and texture.
2. Puff pastry is better than pie dough: Okay, now I’m really firing shots! It’s true though. Puff pastry, especially homemade puff pastry is going to bake up lighter, more airy and flaky buttery than any pie dough. It just tastes better.
3. Use the apples you have: Because these apples bake quickly in this recipe, you don’t need to fuss about having the “perfect” pie apple. What you like to eat will be bake up tender and perfectly lovely. Just not Granny Smith. That’s always the wrong answer!
4. Mini desserts can be easy: If you start with good ingredients, you can make mini desserts quickly without having to spend hours decorating and fussing. Here, your only real time investment is in prepping apples.

Apples that are best for apple tarts

1. Gala
2. Gravenstein
3. McIntosh
4. Jonathan
5. Golden Delicious or Ginger Gold
6. Cosmic Crisp

Truly though, use what you have. You don’t need a lot of apples for this recipe, so feel free to mix apples together. I’m always an advocate of mixing apple varieties. And Granny Smiths get a lot of abuse here, but you can (I guess! ha!) use them as well; you just won’t see them in my house!

Stuff you need for making puff pastry apple tarts

• Rolling pin: what feels good in your hands and is solid.
• Pizza wheel: for making squares of pastry. Alternatively, you can use a square cutter as I am here.
• Vegetable Peeler: I love my Kuhn Rikon here. It makes quick work of peeling the apples.

Pro tips for making the very best apple tarts

1. Peel your apples: No apple crimes, and no laziness allowed. Peel your apples. Every time I see unpeeled apples, I see their skins shrinking away from their tender flesh, all shriveled up and tough and I’m sad for that apple. Treat your apples right. PEEL THEM!
2. Use a slotted spoon: Put the sugar on the apples right before you place the apples on the pastry. If they sit too long, their juices will start running all over the place. Too much juice and it’ll make your pastry soggy. As you get down to the bottom of your bowl of apples, drain your apples in a slotted spoon before placing them on the pastry. They’ll still have plenty of flavor without the sog.
3. Do add a sauce or other accompaniment: These are so quick to make that you have plenty of time to make something else to go with them. I’ll suggest: cinnamon ice cream, pumpkin ice cream, whipped cream frosting, pastry cream, cranberry curd, or caramel sauce. Or stir a little raspberry, blueberry, or strawberry jam into whipped cream.

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