Caramel Apple Streusel Tarts

Directions

Make the dough

Place the flour, salt, and cubed butter in the processor.  Slowly drizzle in the 4 tablespoons of ice water until the dough forms a ball.  Flatten into a disk and wrap in plastic wrap. Keep in the fridge until ready to use.  If you aren’t making your own dough and are using store bought, just keep it in the fridge until ready to use.

Make the apple filling

In a heavy bottomed skillet, melt the butter on medium heat.  Add in the sugar and cinnamon.  Cook the sugar until it is completely dissolved.  This will take about 5 minutes.  Do not walk away and keep stirring the sugar so it doesn’t burn.  After it turns into a caramel color, add your chopped apples and cook for another 5 minutes.  Add in the extract at this point and keep stirring.  Mix your corn starch and water together and slowly drizzle this into the caramel apple mixture.  Cook for another 8 minutes, continuing to stir so nothing will stick to the pan.

When the mixture is thickened and done cooking on the stove, take it off the stove and let cool a bit.  Transfer the mixture to another bowl and place in the fridge for about 20 minutes.

Make the streusel

Melt the 6 tablespoons of butter and add to the remaining streusel ingredients.  Mix with a fork, then get your hands in there and mix it up until it looks like a streusel topping 🙂

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with a silicone mat or parchment paper.

Roll out your chilled dough

Roll the dough until it’s about 1/4 inch or so thick.  I made mine a bit thicker because I love crust 🙂  This recipe makes plenty of dough, so don’t be afraid you’ll run out.

You can either piece together the dough into the pan, or cut the dough larger than the springform pans and place the dough in that way.  It will break, but that’s ok.  Just take your time and piece it together until the pan is completely covered inside.

Place the tarts on a parchment lined baking dish.

Divide and scoop the apple filling into the dough lined pans. It’s about 3/4 cup or so..maybe a bit more.  They should be filled about 1/2 to 3/4 of the way.

Bake the apple filled pans for 20 minutes and remove them from the oven.

Now, fill the tarts with the streusel so it reaches the top of the pan.

Bake for another 25 to 35 minutes, or until the streusel is golden brown.

Let the tarts cool for about 15 minutes before removing the sides and bottom of the pans.

Serve warm with vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce!!

Place any leftovers in an airtight container.

You can wrap and freeze these for up to a month!!

Enjoy!!!! xo