Vegan Apple Tart with Salted Caramel Sauce

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — Vegan apple tart with salted caramel sauce

What could be better than crisp pastry with juicy sweet apples and a salted caramel sauce. This recipe is crazy easy and tastes great. Finland, just like the UK, has a superb variety of flavourful apples. For this recipe it is better to pick a variety that isn’t too floury and retains its shape, otherwise you will end up with apple sauce in a pastry case. A couple of notes, the sauce requires full fat coconut milk, the thicker the better, otherwise the sauce will remain very watery (unfortunately this isn’t a healthy recipe, maybe a weekend treat?). Secondly Arrowroot (Arrowjuurijauho) isn’t so easy to find in Finland, however I managed to find it in Ruohonjuuri. Someone suggested I could use potato starch as an alternative. I haven’t tested this, but I believe it would give the tart a cloudy finish, whereas arrowroot turns clear. The salted caramel sauce will last covered and refrigerated up to a week. Just give it a good stir before use.

Apple Tart with Salted Caramel Sauce – makes 1 x 18cm square tart

4 Apples, cored and sliced very thinly

3 tbsp maple syrup + extra for brushing

2 tbsp Arrowroot

1 tsp cinnamon

juice of 1/2 lemon

batch of vegan pastry – see my previous recipe here

For the Salted Caramel Sauce:

80 ml extra thick coconut milk

3 tbsp cold water

4 tbsp coconut sugar

a couple of drops of vanilla essence

a good pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees. Roll out your pastry as thin as possible and line a loose bottom 18 x 18 tart tin. If you wish you can blind bake your pastry case but I found it wasn’t necessary, as long as the pastry is thin and you don’t overload the pie with apple filling.

Carefully mix the apple slices with the syrup, cinnamon, arrowroot and lemon, making sure the apples are all coated in the sweet mixture. Lay the apple slices in rows until the pastry case is filled and there are no large gaps.

Bake for 40 mins, until the apples are soft and begin to turn golden. Remove from oven and brush with maple syrup to give the tart a beautiful shiny glaze.

While the tart is cooking you can make the caramel sauce. Add the sugar and water to a pan and heat until the sugar has dissolved. Allow to slowly boil for 2 – 3 mins. Add the coconut milk and turn down to a simmering point. Allow the mixture to simmer for 10 – 15 mins until the sauce has thickened. At this point remove from the heat and add the vanilla and salt. Don’t worry if the sauce looks too thin, it will thicken a little more as it cools.