Puff Pastry Apple Tart

This easy Apple Tart, made with puff pastry, is brimming with the delicious flavors of autumn! Featuring layers of glazed apples atop a silky apple butter spread and baked on flaky pastry, this tart is a must-make this apple season.

This Puff Pastry Apple Tart is a true celebration of fall! I was inspired to make this after my summer celebration tarts, featuring savory zucchini in one and tomatoes in another. Those simple tarts were a breeze to put together but so flavorful, so I tried my hand at a sweet apple version. I knew I wanted it to have layers of apples (similar to this Apple Almond Pie), but I wanted the apple flavor to shine. And whenever I want a flavor to shine, I think about all the ways I can incorporate that ingredient into the recipe.

This Apple Tart features three layers of apple flavor: a concentrated apple filling (using apple butter), thin slices of whole apple, and an apple glaze painted on after the tart has baked (though this is optional). This pastry manages to be both straightforward in its assembly while also packing powerful apple flavor.

This tart recipe can be prepared either using store-bought puff pastry or homemade rough puff pastry.

It's perfect for an easy bake after returning from the apple orchards, or whenever you need a simple, seasonal dessert to serve after dinner!

So, let's get to making it, shall we? You can jump around the article using the menu below, or you can head right to the bottom for the complete recipe.

Jump to:

• Ingredients Needed
• What Kind of Apples to Use
• Let's Talk About the Puff Pastry
• How to Prepare the Filling
• Visual Recipe Overview
• Tips for a Well-Baked Tart
• To Glaze or Not to Glaze
• Serving It
• More Puff Pastry Recipes
• More Apple Recipes
• Full Recipe

Ingredients Needed

Here is an overview of the ingredients needed for this recipe. The full recipe is listed below in greater detail.

• store-bought puff pastry or homemade rough puff pastry 
• good eating apples (see below for recommendations)
• apple butter (this is found near the jams and jellies in most supermarkets)
• apple jam / jelly (I like this brand and I also used Trader Joe's Apple Cider Preserves with success, though Smucker's is probably the most widely available variety)
• egg yolks
• egg wash
• granulated sugar + turbinado sugar
• fresh lemon juice
• ground cinnamon

What Kind of Apples to Use

In short, I'd recommend choosing an apple you like the taste of for this tart. Beyond that recommendation, a sweet apple that holds up well in the oven is your best bet, like Honeycrisp or Fuji. Here are some additional good choices:

• Gala
• Cortland
• Golden Delicious (don't confuse this with Red Delicious)
• Braeburn
• Pink Lady
• Ginger Gold
• Jonagold

Obviously, this list isn't exhaustive, and there are a lot of heirloom apple varietals out there. But this list includes some of the most common apples available at grocery stores and farmer's markets.

Let's Talk About the Puff Pastry

My intention for this recipe was for store-bought puff pastry to be used for its ease.

Purchased puff pastry typically either comes in one folded 14-ounce sheet or two folded 8-ounce sheets. Please note: I haven't tried all brands, so your store-bought puff pastry may be different than this.

These instructions can be adjusted to fit store-bought puff pastry of various sizes. The important part is to thaw it in the refrigerator overnight and keep it cold to maintain the pastry's quality.

Want to make your own puff? Go for it! In fact, the only reason I buy store-bought puff pastry anymore is if I need to test a recipe to ensure it works as intended. I much prefer to spend the time putting together a batch of Rough Puff for a few reasons.

1. It's so much cheaper to prepare it yourself. Store-bought puff pastry is expensive!
2. It's far superior, even if you splurge for a "high-quality" store-bought brand. Side by side, my homemade puff pastry rises much higher and tastes much better than anything commercially-made.
3. I enjoy making it.

Never made puff before? Rough puff pastry is made by laminating (or layering) an enriched butter dough that is very similar to pie crust, except that it's rolled and folded five times. The recipe yields enough for two tarts, so you can cut the recipe in half and have another pastry to use for something else.

How to Prepare the Filling

There are two parts to this filling:

• the apple butter base layer
• the macerated sliced apples

To prepare the apples: Wash and dry them well, then slice the whole apple into to ⅛" thickness. Exact thickness is less important than aiming for the slices to be roughly the same thickness. This ensures that they cook evenly and finish cooking at the same time. Once they are sliced, cut out and discard any pieces of the core or seeds.

You don't need to slice it whole, but I had a vision for what I wanted this apple tart to look like, and slicing them whole executes that vision! Any nature of slices will work here, so long as they are thin and about the same thickness.

Once the apples are sliced, briefly macerate them in sugar, salt, and lemon juice. This brief maceration changes the structure of the apples by drawing out some of their excess moisture while also infusing the slices with some flavor from the added ingredients.

The apple slices will be "shingled" onto the tart, slightly overlapping. How you shingle them is up to you! Leave behind any maceration liquid in the bowl, though there won't be much.

Visual Recipe Overview

Here is a brief visual overview of the recipe (the full recipe is at the bottom of the article):

Tips for a Well-Baked Tart

Chilling the pastry before baking makes the puff pastry bake up taller. This is why the instructions call for placing the puff pastry in the refrigerator as you assemble the rest of the tart ingredients. Alternatively, it can also be placed in the freezer.

The instructions call for "docking" the middle of the puff pastry. This helps to prevent the middle part of the pastry from puffing up too much. However, sometimes the pastry goes rogue and still puffs up. If this happens, poke a hole in the pastry to let the trapped steam escape. Just be careful not to put your hand anywhere near the steam, as it will be hot!

To bake, preheat the oven to 400ºF and set a rack in the lower middle position in the oven. Baking it in the lower part of the oven ensures that the puff pastry bakes through on the bottom, but the apples don't burn from the top.

To Glaze or Not to Glaze

Whether or not you want to glaze your apple tart is a serious question! Leaving it baked as-is gives it a more rustic appearance, while glazing it gives it a more sophisticated look (without much effort).

The glaze is simple. It's made from heated and strained fruit preserves or jam, with a bit of water added to it to make it possible to brush it onto the fruit. And in this case, using apple jam or jelly helps bump up the apple flavor.

There is a delicate balance to strike between adding enough glaze to coat the fruit but not making it gummy. Glazing the tart is completely optional.

Serving It

Slice the tart into 12 or 16 square pieces and serve while it's warm or at room temperature.

The tart is best served the day it is made, but leftover apple tart can be stored at room temperature in a covered container for 1-2 days, and reheated in a toaster oven to crisp it back up.

More Puff Pastry Recipes

More Apple Recipes

I am so honored when you make a recipe from my site! If you make this Apple Tart, please leave a star ⭐️ rating with your experience! If you have any questions about this recipe, feel free to comment here, and tag me on Instagram!

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