A gorgeous, simple yet delicious treat! Sweet apples, tangy onions, creamy brie, savory thyme layered on thin, crisp, flaky puff pastry make a stunning tart. To keep things super easy, I cook the toppings separately and load them onto a store bought pastry sheet. It then only needs about 20 minutes in the oven! The cheese goes in for the last 3-5 minutes of baking, so that it just melts and keeps its creamy texture. Once done, I sprinkle the tart with crunchy thyme leaves briefly cooked in oil with butter and sugar. Serve this beautiful, autumn-y Caramelized Apple and Onion Tart as a part of your festive table or charcuterie board, or simply enjoy as a yummy snack.
The Flavour Affair:
Apples + Butter + Nutmeg + Onions + Red Vinegar + Sugar + Brie + Thyme
This combination provides a great balance of sweet, tart and savory. Moreover, each element has a number of nuances, making the overall flavour more complex and ‘layered’. The contrast in textures is also very nice – creamy, juicy, crunchy, crispy.
Apples: it’s nice to use different types of apples here to get a mix of sweet and sour. For instance, Royal Gala or Jazz and Granny Smith. You can also get three smaller apples of different colours.
Butter is used for sautéing apples and helps tone down the tartness of the fruit. Add ground nutmeg to the pan with apples – it beings in a warm, woody, autumn-y feel.
Onions: I prefer red because they cook a little faster. For this recipe, I first sauté onion slices in oil, then braise them for 15-20 minutes with red vinegar and sugar. You get something like an onion stew – thick, sweet and tangy.
Brie: thin slices of Brie are added towards the end to preserve the cheese’s creamy texture.
Thyme: I pop in a sprig of thyme to the pan with apples so that the herb’s flavour has a chance to mingle with the other components. But it makes the best appearance as a topping! For that, I quickly fry a few sprigs in a mix of oil, butter and sugar. Once they’ve cooled down, the leaves become crispy, with an earthy, bitter-sweet flavour – an amazing finishing touch for the tart!
Puff Pastry: pick a sheet of good quality buttery puff pastry. It will withstand the weight of the toppings, puff in the right places and provide a crispy, flaky texture that is deliciously buttery yet very light.
Preparation Tips for Caramelized Apple and Onion Tart with Brie and Thyme:
- Guilty as charged: I use store bought pastry for my tarts. I honestly think that in cooking, just like in many other things, it often pays off to focus on what you do best. It helps save time (and quite possibly the dish itself) and avoid frustration. I use Marie Pure Butter Puff Pastry Dough 230g (no affiliation here, just never had any issues with it).
- Keep your puff pastry in the fridge and only take out just before cooking. If you are using frozen, thaw in the refrigerator overnight.
- Precook the apples and the onions. This adds an extra step but makes the process more predictable. When the tart goes into the oven, there is need to worry about under/over cooking the toppings. You just need to give the puff pastry enough time to puff and turn golden.
- While the tart is baking, you have enough time to prepare sugary thyme leaves. Heat a mix of oil and butter to medium, add a few sprigs of thyme and watch them ‘dance’ on the pan for a few minutes. Cool down and shake the sprigs vigorously for the leaves to fall off. There may be a few stubborn ones – use a small knife to cut them off.
- Use the spine side of that small knife to score a circle about 1.5cm from the edges. Arrange the toppings within that border and brush the edge with a beaten egg.
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The edge will puff and turn golden. Once it has (usually after around 15 minutes at 190C), take the tart out and arrange brie slices on top. Send back for 3-4 minutes for the cheese to just start to melt. Take out and sprinkle with sugary thyme leaves. Yummm!
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All done! You can enjoy the tart warm or at the room temperature. Once it cools down, the colors will fade a little, but all the flavours will still be there. I actually even left it in the kitchen under a cling film overnight, it was still great the day after.
Make sure to also check out my Pears and Gorgonzola Tart recipe!
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Caramelized Apple and Onion Tart with Brie and Thyme
Equipment
- 1 large pan
- 1 medium sauce pan
- 1 small pan
- 1 oven rack
Ingredients
For the apples:
- 2 medium apples cut into 3mm half circles (see notes)
- 2 sprigs of thyme see notes
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg or more to taste
- 40 g butter
- 1/3 tsp salt
For the onions:
- 200 sliced red onion
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1/4 cup red vinegar
- 3 tbsp olive oil
For sugary thyme:
- 3 sprigs of thyme
- 20 g butter
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp sugar
For the tart:
- 1 31 cm puff pastry sheet
- 1 egg beaten
- 150 g Brie cheese sliced
Instructions
- Add 3 tbsp of oil to a medium sauce pan and fry onions for 4-5 minutes until translucent. Add the sugar and stir well. Hit the pan with the vinegar, lower the heat and cook for 10-15 minutes until the liquid has thickened and reduced.
- In the meantime, melt 40g butter in another pan and add two thyme springs. Stir in ground nutmeg and a pinch of salt. Add apples and fry for a few minutes until softened.
- Take puff pastry out of the fridge just before ready to use. Unroll carefully and place on a bigger piece of parchment paper.
- Use a small knife to score a border about 1.5cm from the edge. Brush the border with the beaten egg and arrange apples and onions in the middle.
- Bake at 170C for 10-15 minutes until the pastry turns golden. Take out, arrange Brie slices on top and send back for another 5 minutes.
- While the tart is baking, melt 20g butter in a small pan and add 2 tbsp olive oil. Stir in 1 tsp sugar. Add thyme sprigs and fry for 2-3 minutes. Let cool and shake for the leaves for fall off. Sprinkle over the tart and serve.
Notes
- You can use one sweet and one sour apple to make the flavour more interesting. It is also cool to use different colours.
- Instead of fresh thyme sprigs, you can use 1 tsp dried thyme.
