McIntosh apple tree in my backyard is full of ripe apples and I feel fall season has finally started in Southern California. Looking at these bright red and green fruit, I absolutely had to make apple tarts. I added a savory component by adding cheese because sweet apples and cheese are delicious together.

Tableware
To get into my fall mood I’m using Spode’s Delamere Brown dessert plates. According to Spode, this collection with British flower borders dates back to 1831. Most of my other Spode pieces are either blue and white or red and white earthenware so when I saw this and few other pieces at Replacements, I wanted add something different to my collection.
Red Baking Apples
When you use McIntosh apples for tarts or pies, you need to combine them with red baking apples like Fuji, Honeycrisp, Pink Lady or Gala. McIntosh alone are fine if you’re making apple sauce but you need baking apples to make sure your apples don’t disintegrate. I used total of 6 apples and combined 3 McIntosh with 3 Fuji which resulted in soft but not mushy apples to pile on top of the puff pastry.
I like to cook my apples first so they can soften in its own juice and simmer with cinnamon. I used one tablespoon of cinnamon for 6 apples which may not seem enough, but I didn’t want strong cinnamon flavor to clash with cheese. Just a hint of cinnamon spices up the apples but won’t overwhelm other flavors in the tart.
As far as sweetness goes, I don’t care for super sweet cooked apples. Apples already contain natural sugar so by packing your cooked apples with lots of sugar it will make your pastry very heavy. I added 1/3 cup of light brown sugar to the apples with some lemon juice and it gave the pastry the right amount of sweetness without being too sugary.
Puff Pastry
You can use any frozen puff pastry, but the one I prefer to use is Trader Joe’s puff pastry sheets. It doesn’t contain long list of ingredients and you can really smell and taste the butter in the dough. Trader Joe’s only stock this during the holiday season and they disappear from the frozen food section as soon as Christmas is over. I make sure to stock up and buy enough to use throughout the year.
One thing I noticed with this pastry dough is because of the butter content, you have to work quickly, other wise it becomes too soft to handle. I wanted to cut my individual tarts into perfectly shaped 3″x 4″ rectangles but in trying to work quickly, I didn’t roll the dough large enough and some of my tarts came out as squares. With my uneven shapes, two sheets of puff pastry yielded 16 tarts. This was my first attempt at baking individual tarts and like anything, I’ll practice more so I can get a hang on this or maybe I’ll just cut them into squares next time.
Adding Savory Flavors
Someone once told me that apple pie and cheddar cheese taste good together and at the time I didn’t think it was very appealing. I changed my mind when I started to enjoy apple slices with aged cheddar cheese on charcuterie boards. You can use aged cheddar for these tarts but I ended up using Quatro Fromaggio from Trader Joe’s which is a blend of grated Parmesan, Fontina, Asiago, and mild Provolone. It’s a good combination of salty and mild cheese and flavor wise, it works with baked apples.
I sprinkled my cheese all around the edges of puff pastry and baked them at 375 degrees for about 15 minutes or until the cheese and pastry around the edges are nice golden brown.
I also added sprigs of thyme to my apple tart, because it’s also wonderful with apples and its earthy flavors go so well with savory foods. I placed 1-2 sprigs of thyme on top of apples to bake, but I later sprinkled some thyme leaves over my tarts. I can’t get enough of fresh herbs, food taste more delicious with it.
Aside from the size issue, these tarts were a hit with my family. It’s great to eat for breakfast or for an afternoon snack and almost all the tarts were gone in a few days.
Sweet & Savory Apple Puff Pastry Tarts
Ingredients
- 6 small red baking apples or combination of mcintosh with red baking apples, peeled, cored and chopped
- ⅓ cup light brown sugar
- 2 tsp lemon juice
- 1 tbsp cinnamon
- 2 sheets frozen puff pastry
- 1½-2 cups grated cheese (aged cheddar or blend of salty and mild cheese)
- 5-6 sprigs of thyme cut in half
- 1-2 tbsp fresh thyme leaves (optional)
Instructions
- Heat medium sized pot over low heat and add apples. Add sugar, lemon juice and cinnamon and cook for 15 minutes or until apples become soft. Turn off heat and set it aside to cool.
- Thaw frozen puff pastry according to instructions on box. Preheat oven to 375°. Roll out dough and cut out 3"x4" rectangle.
- Place apples in the middle of each cut out rectangle and place sprigs of thyme on top of apples. Sprinkle grated cheese all around the edges of each tart.
- Bake tarts in the oven for 15 minutes or until edges are golden brown. Sprinkle fresh thyme leaves on freshly baked tarts.
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