vegan apple tart

My dear friend Luana from benvenutocellini asked me a few days ago, if I could give her some suggestions for vegan cakes recipes. After searching the net and reading many of vegan recipes and articles I was ready for my first vegan cake. I thought I can’t go wrong to start with an apple tart and I’m very happy how delicious it turned out.

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Preparation for a 20cm spring or tart pan

For the pastry:

• 100 g spelt flour
• 80 g whole hazelnuts
• 60 g cane sugar
• 80 g vegan butter or margarine
• 1 tablespoon almond milk

Spread the hazelnuts on a baking tray and bake them for about 10 to 15 minutes.

Remove the pan from the oven, let the nuts cool completely and finely grind the hazelnuts.

In a large bowl add the flour, the sugar, the margarine, the almond milk and the ground hazelnuts and gently mix until the dough comes together. The dough should feel a little moist.

Wrap the dough in a plastic foil and let it rest in the refrigerator for about 60 minutes.

For the filling:

• 3 – 4 apples
• 3 tablespoon muscovado sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• dash of ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon Calvados

Peel all of your apples, get rid of the cores and cut the apples in slices.

Add the apple slices to a pan and add the muscovado sugar, ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, vanilla extract, the lemon juice and Calvados,

Simmer gently the mixture for about 10 minutes on a medium low heat, until the apples are just tender.

Remove from the heat and slow to cool completely.

To assemble the tart:

Preheat the oven to 190° C

Transfer the dough to the tart pan and press it into the pan until the base and sides are evenly covered with a neat layer of dough and pierce with a fork several times. Keep the remaining dough for the crumb topping.

Fill the pastry case with a round of baking paper and add baking beans to weigh it down.

Bake the pastry for 15 minutes on the second lowest rack in the oven, then carefully remove the paper and beans and bake the pastry for 5 minutes more.

Remove the pastry from the oven, arrange the apples in a circular pattern and spoon a little bit of the applesauce over the apples and sprinkle it with the remaining crumb topping.

Bake the tart in a preheated 180° C oven in the middle rack for about 15 minutes.

Spoon the remaining applesauce over the tart and serve the tart warm or cold.

Happy baking!