Mini Apple Tarte Tatin Roses
Posted on: September 20, 2022. Updated on: July 12, 2023.
by Carolina Gelen
I can’t be the only one who sees a rose-shaped apple tart every time I log in to Pinterest, right? The presentation is cool, but the dessert never seemed very appealing to me. I decided to play around with the concept—what could I add to make it better? Custard? Frangipane? Both seemed like too much work and waiting around.
And then the idea finally hit me: tarte tatin! This French dessert traditionally uses a skillet, but I’ve riffed on it to use a muffin pan instead.
These individual apple roses are as delicious as they are pretty. The glossy caramel preserves the beautiful floral shape, while the apple slices become jammy and custardy. And you only need three ingredients to make them: store-bought puff pastry, apples, and sugar. If you’re feeling frisky, serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a big pour of heavy cream.
If you have leftovers, you can store them in an airtight container in the refrigerator overnight, then microwave for a quick, sweet treat in the morning.
Mini Apple Tarte Tatin Roses
Servings: 6
Prep: 20 minutes
Cook: 45 minutes
Ingredients
- 2 large apples (such as Pink Lady, Fuji, or Honeycrisp)
- 1 sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed overnight in the fridge
- 1 1/4 cups (225 g) granulated sugar
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 400°F or 205°C. Line 6 cups of a standard 12-cup muffin tin with circles of parchment paper. Make sure you don’t skip this step.
- Bring a few cups of water to a boil, over the stove, or using an electric kettle.
- Using a sharp knife or mandoline, thinly slice the apples around the core into half-moon slices 1 to 1½ millimeters thick. Soak the apples in boiled water for 3 to 5 minutes, until they become soft and bendable. Don’t worry about them oxidizing—they’ll brown anyway in the caramel.
- Roll the pastry to 2 millimeters thick. Cut lengthwise into 6 strips. Store-bought puff pastry usually comes folded into thirds, so you can use those creases as a guide.
- Arrange one-sixth of the apple slices on the top half of each strip, peel side up. Fold the pastry in half, over the apples, press down, leaving the rounded, unpeeled edges of the apple slices exposed at the top.
- Roll up one apple-filled pastry strip, from one end, to the other, to form a rose. Cut the excess dough off if necessary and pinch the end of the dough strip to seal. Repeat with the remaining strips and set aside.
- Add the sugar to a pan over medium-low heat. Allow the sugar to slowly melt in the pan, without any stirring it. Make sure to stand next to the pan, and watch the sugar, it’ll take a while to start melting, but once it does, it can burn really easily. Cook undisturbed for about 10 minutes, lowering the heat as needed, until the sugar caramelizes to a deep amber. You can tilt the pan if needed for even cooking, but avoid stirring. This is the dry method of making caramel, if you prefer using the wet one, that will work just as well.
- Pour 2 to 3 soup spoons of caramel into each parchment paper lined muffin well. Arrange the apple roses upside down in each well, the apples should be touching the caramel.
- Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the puff pastry is cooked through—it should feel firm to the touch, with a light golden color.
- Allow the roses to rest for 5 minutes before serving. Carefully lift each rose, and remove the parchment paper to reveal the jammy, apples.
Yes
Cannot wait to try these! You had me at puff pastry!
Is there any way way to make ahead or just oven to table?
You can definitely make them ahead, and warm them up in the oven before serving 🙂
Can I use cupcake liners instead of parchment paper to line the muffin tin?
Unfortunately, no the tarts will stick to the muffin cupcake liners.
I need a video, newbie here!
There’s a quick video on my Instagram page, @carolinagelen 🙂
Baked an extra 20 minutes after the first one we tried was a huge t raw. Still a bit raw in the middle. Tasty as all get out, but wondering if you had any suggestions or tips.
Good question! My first tip would be to get an oven thermometer, if they took over 20 more minutes to bake (and were still a bit raw), I would assume your oven doesn’t get hot enough. If you set the oven at 375°F, it might only heat up to 325°F. Having an oven thermometer you can trust would make a huge difference! Hope this helps, Rob, thank you for giving this recipe a go and keep me posted 🙂
I make “apple roses” using puff pastry & bake them @ 400F x 40-45 min. I put them in parchment tulip style liners (no caramel). The puff pastry is about 1/8” thick.
Is it possible to freeze this once baked?
Absolutely, they’d last a few months in the freezer. Simple thaw them overnight in the fridge, and heat the in a microwave or oven before serving 🙂
Could I use homemade rough puff pastry for these?
Absolutely 🙂
This looks amazing 😻😻 assuming any are left over, how long should they be able to last afterwards?
I’d give them about 5 to 6 days at room temp 🙂
Omg yes! I been looking for something like this for so long o! 🖤
Would this recipe work if I subbed the apples for pears? Thank you!
Absolutely!
I like to add butter to caramel to make it more fluid and sticky. Do you think that would work in this recipe?
That should work 🙂
I made these this morning and they turned out great & so yummy – thank you for the recipe! I have a few notes, in case anyone else was coming to this as new as me.
– if using store bought puff pastry, you don’t have to roll it out! I know, obvious, but I spent too long trying to figure out if I need to or not lol.
– I removed the soaked apples from the water and patted them down with paper towels to remove excess water. Having the slices be too wet made for a slippery roll up, and the pat down gave the apples an extra moment to cool so they wouldn’t be so hot going on the puff pastry.
– if you’re like me and just hand sliced the apples, choose a thinner, more bendy slice for the end where you start. You’ll get a tighter roll!
– I popped the rosettes back in the fridge while I made the caramel to keep the puff from getting too warm.
If I don’t have a muffin tin, can I place the rolled tarts upwards on a baking sheet and pour the caramel on top? Or do you think it might fall apart? Thank you!!!
If you don’t have a muffin tin, the next option would be a square or round baking tin. Add the caramel to the bottom, and arrange the roses apple-side down, the caramel. Bake, flip, pull them apart, and serve 🙂
honestly i was so excited to try this because as a beginner baker, this recipe seemed fairly simple!
however, the steps in which it’s laid out had me make my soaked apple slices sitting in puff pastry, getting hard, while i was figuring out why my sugar wasn’t carmalizing (i used granulated sugar and followed your directions, but it just burned and smoked up my whole kitchen).
in the end i had to throw everything out and was extremely defeated because i felt like i wasted a ton of ingredients. i will attempt this again next weekend, but i’d suggest supplementing a more instructional video on instagram rather than just pretty snapshots of the process.
everything you make looks so beautiful and easy, but as a beginner it’s super hard to follow along 🙁
Thanks love them so yummy 😋
Can you freeze or cook and freeze?
Both will work! I prefer cooking and freezing, get most of the work out the way, then reheat them for 5 to 10 minutes in the oven before serving.
Mine came out with a sort of caramel cap so you couldn’t see the rosette shape. Any advice on how to fix?
I’d suggest pushing the pies down as much as possible, so they touch the bottom of the pan 🙂
Thank you!
I’ve made these before without the caramel, but with it sounds even better!