This Bavarian apple tart combines a sweet tart dough (pate sucree), sweet cream cheese filling, and cinnamon sugar tossed apples into a wonderful fall treat that's worthy of a spot in your holiday baking lineup.
For this Bavarian tart, I use this tried and true pâte sucrée recipe. The classic French tart crust is crisp, buttery, and tender, providing the perfect traditional base that holds up beautifully to the juicy apples and creamy filling.
The apples that I used in the image are an heirloom variety I found locally called the Mountain Rose. Other unique pink apple types I've seen include the Hidden Rose and Pink Pearl.
No matter what you call them, they're magical to use in baking. Unassumingly light green on the outside, they hide a sweet tart interior that's bright pink. A bonus I discovered while making this tart: the apples didn't brown after peeling them! The pink color remains present after baking, so you don't lose any of the drama when it comes out of the oven.
The pink makes for a unique presentation, but don't pass this up just because you have standard apples. The tart will be delicious and visually striking with ANY type of crisp eating apple that you have on hand.
The spoke-like arrangement of the slices on the cream cheese filling is a big part of the drama. And a dusting of powdered sugar can't help but dress it up further.
For more fall baking, there's also my simple apple cake, apple blackberry crumble, and apple ginger mini cakes with salted caramel sauce.
Love this recipe? Please leave a comment and star rating. ★★★★★ Your feedback, suggestions, and adaptations are very helpful to other bakers!
📖 Recipe
Bavarian Apple Tart
INGREDIENTS
- 9.5 in pâte sucrée, par baked (follow link for recipe)
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 16 oz cream cheese , room temperature
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 4 cups apples, peeled, quartered and sliced into crescent shapes
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ⅛ teaspoon ground cardamom
- powdered sugar, for dusting on top of tart
INSTRUCTIONS
PÂTE SUCRÉE (SWEET TART DOUGH)
- Prepare pâte sucrée recipe for a 9.5 inch tart pan. Use shorter baking time to par bake bake the sweet tart dough.
- Place the tart on a rack to cool completely.
CREAM CHEESE FILLING
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix the cream cheese and sugar on medium-low speed until well combined. Scrape the sides of the bowl with a spatula to assure the sugar is evenly blended.
- Add eggs one at a time, beating well to incorporate. Add vanilla and mix to combine.
- Pour cream cheese mixture into cooled par baked tart shell and smooth with an offset spatula.
APPLE TOPPING
- Preheat oven to 350 F (177 C, Gas number 4) and place rack in the middle of the oven.
- In a large bowl, gently mix the apple slices with the sugar and spices together with a spatula, folding carefully so that the apples do not break.
- Starting at the middle of the tart and working your way out, place the apples one by one into the cream cheese filling with the narrower interior side of the apple slice facing down into the filling and the wider exterior of the apple facing out. If one end of the apple is wider than the other, place the wider end towards the outside. (Think of the way a flower petal on a daisy is narrow at the center and wider at the outside)
- Place the apple slices in concentric circles until you reach the exterior edge of the tart. See images of the unbaked tart for reference in placement.
- Bake for 55-60 minutes, or until the center of the tart is almost set. Cool on a rack.Use a pie shield to keep the outer edge of the tart crust from browning too much.
- Spoon a small amount of powdered sugar into a fine-mesh sieve and VERY gently tap it against your hand while holding over the tart. Remove the tart from the pan and place on a serving platter.
Emily says
Beautiful! I want to make this for Christmas dinner and have a few questions 🙂 I'll be doing a lot of other cooking the day of Christmas, is their a good way for me to make it a day early and store it? Would you need to warm it up again in the over or would it taste good cold? Or could I possibly even just cook the crust and mix together the fillings and apples and then put it all together and cook it when we're ready to eat it? I'm much better at cooking than baking, so any tips on this would be much appreciated 🙂 Thank you!
The Floured Table says
Hi Emily! Thanks for your thoughtful questions. Breaking it down into steps is definitely possible - I do that all the time and it really makes a big difference. For this recipe, I think it does taste best slightly warm and the same day it's baked. I would recommend two things that you could do in advance to cut down on baking time the day of: Mix up your tart dough a day or two in advance and keep well wrapped in the fridge. You could even roll it out and have it ready to go in the tart pan in advance. You can also pre-measure and mix together the sugar and spices for the apple filling. Since you're only slightly par-baking the crust before adding the filling, it wouldn't work as well to try that the day before. The cream cheese filling comes together really easily. Peeling the apples and placing them is really the most time consuming part! Wishing you a wonderful Christmas dinner!
Emily says
Thank you for the advice, it turned out AMAZING! I got a lot of compliments. Great recipe and great post! Only wish I could've gotten a hold of the pink apples in my area and it would've been perfect 🙂
The Floured Table says
This makes me SO happy! Thank you so much for taking the time to share your results, Emily.
x
Kathleen
Renée says
Those Pink apples are beautiful, they are usually only available for a hot minute in the Northeast, Of course, I missed them this year at my Greenmarket. Luckily I can eye your beautiful tart and more here on your very lovely blog...X
The Floured Table says
Thank you so much, Renée! It's the first time I've found them here as well. It appears that the variety originated here on the West Coast -presumably that makes it easier for me to source them locally. There's something magical about slicing into one - pale green with a light blush on the outside, and then the reveal of that amazing pink interior!