I really wanted to make a delicate little tart using these heirloom apples I found at WholeFoods one day, and that’s where these tarts came about. Well, that, and I was loosely inspired by Momo from Shokugeki no Soma. What? I’m allowed to take inspiration from anime and videos. I’m a weeb at my core. With the heirloom apples I purchased, they had this gorgeous, dark red color to them, and I knew that I could capture that color with rose flavoring. So I opted to extract the color of the peel and simmer that with lemon juice, rose jam, and rose water to bring out the pink color. Initially, I did try to shave the apples and let them sit in the liquid and then wrap them up into roses, but I found that the heirloom apples had a mealy texture that caused them to break apart almost instantly when I tried to do that. So I opted to make a fluid gel with them instead. So for my final tart, it has a pate sucre base, heirloom apple frangipane, a heirloom apple-rose mousse, and heirloom apple-rose fluid gel. Not quite what I initially envisioned, but I managed to make it work…somewhat.

Makes 12 tarts:
For the tart shells:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup almond meal
1 stick unsalted butter
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon rose water
1/4 cup cold water

Blitz into a dough and roll out on a floured surface to about 1/4 inch thickness. Cut out 4 inch circles and press into oiled and floured cupcake tins. Prick the dough and weigh before baking at 400 degrees F for 15 minutes.

For the frangipane:
1/4 cup almond meal
3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 egg
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 heirloom apple, peeled and finely diced
a pinch of salt

combine together into a batter. Transfer to a piping bag and pipe into each tart shell. Bake at 350 degrees F for 15 minutes. Allow to cool down before using.

For the fluid gel:
peels from 2 heirloom apples
1 heirloom apple, grated
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 tablespoons agar agar
a pinch of salt
1/4 cup rose jam
1/2 teaspoon rose water

Bring ingredients to a simmer until apples are translucent. Puree together until bright pink and vibrant. Allow the mixture to set until soft before whipping into a smooth consistency and transferring most of it, except 1/4 cup, to a squeeze bottle.

For the mousse:
1/4 cup heirloom apple fluid gel
8 oz mascarpone cheese

Whip together and transfer to a piping bag equipped with a star or rose tip. Pipe the rosettes of the cream onto the tarts. Finish each tart with 2 dots of the fluid gel.