How To Make An Easy Amaretti Apple Tart

Amaretti Apple Tart is my go-to dessert when I want to impress. It ticks all the boxes; It tastes fantastic, looks great, and is far easier to make than it may appear.

What are Amaretti biscuits?

Amaretti biscuits are traditional Italian almond flavoured macaron biscuits. The word Amaretti means ‘little bitter things’, and these hard cookies are perfect served after dinner with coffee or a liqueur. 

Amaretti biscuits were first created in the early 1700’s in Venice, as an emergency wedding treat by a baker, who only had eggs, apricot kernels and sugar in the building at the time the priest arrived. Today Amaretti biscuits are still made in the same way, with apricot kernels giving them their trademark almond flavour rather than them containing the nut itself.

There are lots of recipes using Amaretti biscuits on the internet, but I favour using them either as a crunchy base as I have with this apple tart or added to crumble topping.

What you need for the Amaretti Apple Tart base:

150g Plain flour

 75g Unsalted butter plus extra to grease the tin

 75g Caster sugar

 60g Amaretti biscuits

What you Need for the Amaretti Apple Tart topping:

800g even-sized apples. Here I am using Pink Lady apples

 60g caster sugar

 1 tsp ground cinnamon

 25g butter, melted

 26cm loose bottom flan tin, greased

How to make Amaretti Apple Tart

To make the Amaretti biscuit base, crush the Amaretti biscuits finely. I find popping them in a bag and use a rolling pin to crush them works well. 

Rub the butter into the flour until it resembles fine breadcrumbs, then stir in the sugar and the crushed Amaretti biscuits.

Press this mixture firmly into the base of your greased tin.

Prepare your apples by cutting into quarters, peeling them if you choose and coring them. You will see from the photos I didn’t peel mine on this occasion, as I think the red skins look pretty. I probably would, however, if I was using an apple such as a Bramley.

Take an apple quarter and slice it finely, holding the slices together as you cut. Repeat with the rest of the apples.

Once all the apple quarters are prepared, take a section and, pushing down on it gently, fan the slices out slightly and arrange them neatly on top of the biscuit base. Try not to leave any of the Amaretti base uncovered and remember the slices will shrink as they cook.

Note: This Amaretti apple tart recipe is very forgiving so don’t worry if your slices are a little uneven. Once cooked, the apple slices always look pretty even if they were a bit unruly when they went in the oven.

Once you have arranged the slices to your liking, brush them with the melted butter, and sprinkle over the mix of the sugar and cinnamon.

Pop onto a baking sheet and bake in a preheated oven 180C for 30-40 minutes.

It is ready when the apples are soft and have a little colour to their edges.

Leave to cool before removing from the tin, and then serve with cream or crème fraiche.

 If you have enjoyed our Amaretti apple tart recipe, you might also enjoy our Summer Berry Pavlova and our Raspberry and Hibiscus Jelly desserts.