Delicious dairy free apple and fig tart

It feels warm and sweet.

It smells amazing.

It’s shiny and pops with color.

It melts in your mouth with first bite.

It’s my super delicious apple and fig tatin. I make it like i mean it.

I’m a sucker for anything French. And when I say french i mean delicious and decadent desserts. When i was in France this year the weather was cool. Long sleeves kept me warm, flat shoes made me comfortable and delicious fruit tatin, almost every couple of hours while exploring, kept me more than happy.

So I’m hooked. And for this Thanksgiving holiday I’ve decided to splurge on a French tatin dessert instead of a traditional cake. Yeah, why would you do what everybody else does? be original and cook something your own. Not that I’m cooking crazy in my kitchen for Thanksgiving which as much as I like this holiday I prefer to be invited, but my daughter makes me cook turkey every year. So I decided to spoil everybody and make my french inspired dessert only this time it’s a filling of fruit over an open top, which makes it more of a tart than a tart tatin, but my inspiration come from the French…you get the idea.

I could make the crust myself but prefer to use my non dairy puff pastry that i always keep in my freezer. Quick and easy. You don’t even have to roll the dough just lay it flat. Fresh apples and black dried figs are not only the perfect marriage on a crust, but the contrasting colors only add to the exhilarating experience. It’s fiberlicious and unlike cake, slices are thin and loaded with fruit. The lack of butter in this recipe came from the idea that i simply didn’t think it was missing. The apricot glaze adds a tasty bling to the final results and last time when I served this dessert to my guests, they were over the moon. Literally. Few minutes later there was nothing left. Nothing I tell you.

So, shall we:

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2 sheets puff pastry, thawed and chilled
4 large green apples
3/4 c. light brown sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
4 whole cloves
pinch of kosher salt
juice of 1 lemon
1/2 pound black dried figs
4 tbsp tap water
1/4 c. apricot jam + t tbsp tap water (mixed in)
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Pre-heat oven to 400º.
Peel, core and slice apples to medium thick. Place in a large bowl with lemon juice and half of the sugar. Set a side for 15 minutes. Over medium heat in a large skillet melt the remaining sugar, add water, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. Stir gently. Add apple slices and lemon juice mix. Stir and cook on low for a few minutes until mixture turns light caramel color and is bubbly. You don’t want deep color, it will turn bitter, so keep an eye. Remove from heat. Let the mixture cool a little so you won’t burn yourself when arranging the apples on the crust. In the meantime, on a floured baking sheet big enough to fit the pastry unfold the sheets flat. With sharp knife score rectangles to guide you for portion size. Mine was about 2.5″x4.5″ each. No science here, just cut to smaller sections. Now, Carefully arrange apple slices on each piece of pastry however you like it and leave a small corner of each crust without apples, to accommodate one fig. I used a fork to fish out the apple slices from the pan. Brush edges of pastry and fruits with the syrup that’s been left in the pan (without the cloves). Bake 25 min, or until crust is rich golden brown. Remove and set aside.

Warm up apricot jam with tap water to melt. Brush apples and figs with the glaze. If there is any left, brush pastry edges. Serve warm with your favorite hot drink. I prefer hot mint tea using fresh leaves. Combination – Speechless.