Paleo/Keto Compliant Almond Apple Tart

As promised, the recipe for my almond paleo apple tart is here. This is a  sugar, dairy, and gluten free dessert 🥧This is my absolute favourite dessert in the world and I’m excited to get into it. There’s truly nothing more scrumptious than the taste of apples, vanilla, cinnamon, and toasted almonds all together. 

Apple tart was my first real bake at age 12; and I owe this recipe to my mom. She is a creative genius in the kitchen and I’m so grateful to have had her as my culinary influencer and guide. My passion for creating wholesome and nutritious recipes started from a young age. I had a knack for creative healthy eating deep within me, even though I also loved indulging in sweets from time to time as well.

Knowing the food industry has shifted immensely and has been compromised by major corporations, I’ve shifted my mindset over the years and now see food as medicine. In fact, food is medicine. And so many of our problems start primarily by our dietary and lifestyle practices. That said, I love to make healthy and nutritious sweets that will nurture my body without any concerns pertaining to processed and GMO foods. 

This recipe is nutritious and super easy to make. It requires your patience because of the many steps it takes to prepare for the ingredients and bake it. 

I’ll start with the tart shell ingredients:

🔸2 + 1/4 cups almond flour – blanched is preferred. I didn’t have any so I made fresh ground roasted almond meal at home using a high speed food processor to get a flour consistency. I made sure to roast the almond for a little bit before turning it into a dough. The smokiness of the almonds will definitely add a greater and richer flavour to the tart. 

*Note: Ground, homemade almond meal is not as smooth as a store bought counterpart (blanched almond flour); however, I like the grainy texture of almond meal so I was quite pleased with it.

🔸2 TBSP homemade, fresh ground chia seeds mixed with an ounce of water – this will create a chia paste that we will incorporate into the dough with the rest of the dry ingredients. 
🔸1/4 cup melted coconut oil or ghee 
🔸1/4 cup almond milk (or more based on your tart shell consistency) 
🔸1 Teaspoon vanilla extract 
🔸A pinch of salt 
🔸1 TSP Ceylon cinnamon 
🔸1/4 cup monk-fruit sweetener or if you don’t have that use 2 TBSPs maple syrup, 3 TBSP coconut sugar, or 20 drops stevia extract are good sweetening options too. I personally like my sweeteners to be the lowest on the glycemic index. So check in with yourself first. 

Instructions:

*Wash your hands thoroughly.*

🔺Mix the dry ingredients then add coconut oil, vanilla extract, and almond milk. Create a ball of though. This dough needs to be non-sticky and uniform, yet easy to roll with a rolling pin. Add extra flour or more almond milk to reach the right dough consistency. 

Set your ball of dough aside in a bowl and into the fridge for about half an hour. 
While waiting for the dough, make the custard.
For this tart, I’ve made Crème Pâtissière

Ingredients:

🔸4 Egg yolks – separated and ready in a medium sized, stainless steel, sauce pan pan. 
🔸1/4 Cup monk-fruit sweetener, again this is your choice to increased or decrease the sweetness or choose your best sweetening agent. I also like maple syrup. 
🔸3 TBSP arrowroot starch 
🔸1 TBSP bloomed non-GMO, grass-fed bovine gelatine from companies like Naka or Vital Proteins – you get bloomed gelatine by adding 1 TBSP gelatine powder to 4 ounce of water and stir to get a thick yet porous consistency. 

*Note: I’m adding gelatine because in an otherwise non-paleo recipe, you could use whole milk and corn starch to get a thick cream. These traditional ingredients would have been the thickening agent in a classic French recipe. On the paleo diet, these foods are avoided. Instead, I’m using gelatine to further enhance the thickness of this pastry cream to reach a similar consistency as a classic French pastry cream. Plus the amino acids in gelatine make this recipe more nutritious and fulfilling. 

🔸1 TSP pure vanilla extract or 1 vanilla bean, scraped 
🔸1 TBSP Maple syrup for a deeper flavour 
🔸2.5 Cups of almond milk and some extra, in case.
🔸3 TBSP home made grass-fed ghee or if not allergic to butter, replace ghee with grass fed butter – I like butter better. I’m allergic to the protein content of butter and need fo go with ghee, as the proteins and sugar are removed and it is safe for me to use. If this is your case too, go with ghee. Otherwise butter will do a beautiful job as well. 
🔸1/8 TSP sea salt

Instructions for the pastry cream:

🔺With an electric whisk, whisk egg yolk, vanilla, 1/8 teaspoon sea salt, and sweetener on high speed until you reach a velvety mixture, for about 1 minute. The volume needs to become doubled and the mixture needs to be fluffy. 
🔺Then add arrowroot starch and whisk on high speed. 
🔺Once done, add bloomed gelatine, whisk well, and pour almond milk into mix. 
🔺Turn the stove on high heat and keep stirring the mixture. Don’t stop as the egg yolk will separate with heat when not stirred consistently. This process is called tempering. You need to do this for about 5-7 minutes until bubbles are formed. Once you see bubbles forming, bring the heat down to medium/low and keep stirring. We want to make sure the proteins will not separate and the cream is thickened and velvety smooth. 
🔺Do this for another 5 minutes on low heat, and finally add ghee or butter and stir will until melted and mixed in. 
🔺Turn the heat off and take sauce pan off the stove. You could strain the mix through a fine-mesh sieve or if not picky, you could leave it be as is and cover the pastry cream with a buttered unbleached and safe parchment paper to avoid skin formation on top of the cream, or put the saucepan lead on until the cream cools off. 
🔺While this happens, bring the tart dough out of the oven and get a rolling pin. 
🔺Find a clean surface and add some coconut flour and gently roll out the dough from every angle to form a roller out and round dough. The thickness of it will be around 3-4 mm. 
🔺Get a 10×10 or 12×12 inch tart pan and gently move the rolled out tart shell to the pan. If the dough breaks, don’t panic and paste them back together with your hands. It’s all good!
🔺Press the dough thoroughly and make sure it is consistent. If you have some extra, you bake the rest in a mini tart shell pan. 
🔺Use a fork and create holes throughout so the tart can bake all the way through. 
🔺For extra flavour and buttery goodness, spread small pieces of ghee or butter and all over the tart shell just before inserting it in the oven. 
🔺Turn the oven on put it on 350 degrees. Wait for it to reach that temperature and insert the tart shell into the oven and bake for 12-15 minutes until the dough turns golden brown and baked through. 
*Note: Check in with your oven’s temperature and strength to make sure the tart shell doesn’t burn out around the 12th minute. 
🔺Once done, remove from the oven and cool down for about half an hour. 

While your tart shell is cooking and cooling down, prepare to make for the cinnamon apple compote, which will go on top of your pastry cream.

For that you would need:

🔸2 large apples – I like anything but a green apple for this recipe. I like the skin on because of the medicinal component of it. Quercetin is the flavonoid found in the skin of apples that has incredible anti-inflammatory and anti-allergenic properties. 
🔸Add about 2 TBSPs monk-fruit sweetener.
🔸Add one ounce of water to the pan.
🔸1 Teaspoon Ceylon cinnamon powder
🔸1 Teaspoon pure vanilla extract 
🔸Tiny pinch of salt 
🔸2 TBSPs grass fed ghee/butter or extra virgin, unrefined coconut oil 

Instructions:
🔺Slice the apple into two halves. And slice each half into two halves again so you have four evenly sliced portions. Gently remove the seeds and fibrous parts from the mid section of the apples using a sharp serrated knife. You want to have a moon shaped apple slice. Then create thinly sliced apple slivers out of each part. The slivers will be roughly 2 mm in thickness. 
🔺Gently transfer the apple slivers onto a medium sized stainless steel sauce pan and add all the ingredients.
🔺Heat up the pan to medium-low heat and put the saucepan lead on. 
🔺When the pan and apples start boiling, decrease the heat to low heat and cook for another 10 minutes. 
🔺Cook for a total of 15-20 minutes until apples are fully cooked and turn into golden brown
🔺Keep the lead on and set aside to cool off for 15 minutes.

*Wash your hands thoroughly.*

🔺While the apples cool off pour the pastry cream on the tart shell. Make it smooth and consistent. Once apples are cooled off, very gently decorate your tart with the apple slices. Get creative, this is the super fun part. 
🔺Lastly, transfer the tart in the fridge for at least two hours and serve! 

Leave your questions or comments. I’d love to know how it turned out for you.

Behnaz