Looking for an easy, tasty dessert? These apple cranberry tarts with crunchy walnuts on top are perfect for the holidays or anytime.
We make these apple tarts regularly, but usually, we just throw them together without measuring the ingredients. This is really Pat’s recipe, but we worked together to figure out how much of this and how much of that to put in. Give them a try and let me know what you think. We think they’re pretty great with vanilla ice cream or by themselves.
Ingredients
To make twelve tarts you’ll need about four average-sized apples. The ones shown below are gala apples. They’re the kind we have around the house for snacking, so that’s what we used. Other tart, crunchy apples will work. Here’s a link to an article that discusses how various types of apples work out in pies.
I didn’t put the walnuts in the title, but I broke some into small pieces and sprinkled them on top. You’ll also need brown sugar and cinnamon, and of course, dried cranberries.
Did you know that walnuts provide several health benefits? I always knew they were good for you, but when I read this article I learned more about why eating walnuts is such a good thing.
Making Apple Cranberry Tarts
Chop the apples into bite-sized pieces and put all of the ingredients except for the walnuts and the cornstarch/water mixture into a pan.
Cook the apple mixture for 2-3 minutes and then stir in the cornstarch and water to thicken the filling.
Roll out pie dough and cut circles to fit the cups in your muffin pan. The circles that fit my muffin cups are about 4.5 inches.
Spoon the filling into the muffin cups with the pie dough, and sprinkle some walnut pieces on top.
Tart-making Tips
- Add about 1/2 teaspoon of butter on top of the walnut pieces on each tart. This helps makes the walnut pieces crispy.
- If you purchase ready-made pie dough, check the labels. Many brands include lard in the ingredients. If you’re a vegetarian, look for the ones that use coconut oil jor vegetable shortening.
- If you’re making your own pie dough, you might want to read this article.
Serving Apple Cranberry Tarts
Put the warm tarts in a bowl or plate, add an optional dollop of vanilla ice cream, and eat them up. They go great with a cup of coffee or tea. These tarts sometimes pass for breakfast around here.
Here’s a close-up of these apple cranberry tarts that shows the colorful cranberries and toasty walnuts.
If you’re looking for something sweet, you might like my coffee cake and sweet potato walnut crunch recipes.
Apple Cranberry Tarts
Ingredients
- 16 ounces cut gala apple about 4 average-sized apples
- 1/4 cup dried cranberries
- 1/2 cup walnut pieces
- 2 T brown sugar
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 2 packages of prepared of pie dough about 18 ounces
Instructions
- Roll out the pie dough and cut it into 4.5 inch circles. (Muffin pans vary so your muffin cups might require a different sized circle.)
- Fit the pie dough circles into your muffin pan.
- Pre-heat oven to 375-degrees.
- Core the apples and cut them into small pieces (about ½ inch cubes).
- Put the apples in a pan along with the cranberries, brown sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon, and water.
- Bring these ingredients to boil and cook on low heat for about 2-3 minutes.
- Stir in the cornstarch and water mixture.
- Remove apple mixture from the heat.
- Add the apple, cranberry mixture to the muffin cups that have the pie dough in them.
- Sprinkle walnut pieces on top.
- Add about 1/2 teaspoon of butter on top of each tart.
- Bake in a 375-degree oven for 35-40 minutes.
Notes
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