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Recipe: How to make apple and almond tart

Food writer John Duxbury shares the steps for making this tart's buttery pastry case, soft almond filling, and thin crisp toffee-apple and almond topping.

Published: 10 November 2017 07:59 CET
Recipe: How to make apple and almond tart
Apple cake. Photo: John Duxbury/Swedish Food

The Swedish name of this tart (Äppeltårta med mandelfyllning och tosca) translates as ‘apple tart with almond filling and tosca’. Tosca refers to the fact that the topping is based on the topping from Toscakaka, a Swedish cake created in honour of Puccini’s opera.

Based on a recipe by Maud Onnermark.

Summary

Serves: 10-12

Difficulty level: Moderate

Preparation time: 25 minutes (plus time for the pastry to chill)

Cooking time: 35 minutes

Total: 60 minutes

Tips

. The tart looks more attractive when made with red-skinned apples. Swedes like to use Ingrid Marie, a variety popular in Scandinavia, but other varieties that work well include Aroma, Frida, and Discovery.

. Liquid glucose (sometimes called glucose syrup) is widely available, although if you can’t find it you could substitute with corn syrup, but NOT glycerine, which is entirely different.

Ingredients

Pastry

180 g (1 ¼ cups) plain (all-purpose) flour

50 g (3 tbsp) caster (superfine) sugar

125 g (½ cup) butter, cut into small cubes

1 egg yolk

Filling

75 g (⅓ cup) butter, softened

100 g (⅝ cup) ground almonds

100 g (7 tbsp) caster (superfine) sugar

1 large egg

1 unwaxed lemon, zest and juice

2-3 red-skinned apples

Topping

50 g (3tbsp) butter

1 tbsp flour

50 g (3 tbsp) caster (superfine) sugar

2 tbsp liquid glucose (glucose syrup)

50 g (½ cup) flaked (slivered) almonds

Method

1. Make the pastry by putting the flour and sugar in a food processor and giving it a few whizzes. Add the butter and whizz for 10-15 seconds until the mixture resembles fine bread crumbs.

2. Add the egg yolk and process for a further 20-30 seconds until the pastry clings together. (If it doesn't, add a teaspoon or two of cold water.)

3. Roll the pastry out and use it to line a 25 cm (10″) loose-based tart tin. Chill for 30 minutes.

4. Pre-heat the oven to 200°C (400°F, gas 6, fan 180°C).

5. Prick the base of the tart and bake for 12 minutes.

6. Whilst the case is baking, mix the butter for the filling with the ground almonds, caster sugar, a large egg and the zest from the lemon.

7. Put the lemon juice in a large bowl.

8. Core and slice the apples very thinly and toss the slices in the lemon juice to prevent them from going brown.

9. When the case is baked, spread the almond filling over the base and then top with the apple slices.

10. Bake in the middle of the oven for about 25 minutes, until the filling is set.

11. Meanwhile, melt the butter for the topping and then stir in the flour, sugar, liquid glucose and flaked (slivered) almonds. Keep stirring the mixture on a low heat until it starts to simmer.

12. Spread the mixture over the filling and continue baking the tart for a further 10 minutes, until the topping is a light brown toffee colour.

Recipe published courtesy of John Duxbury, founder and editor of Swedish Food.

FOOD AND DRINK

OPINION: Are tips in Sweden becoming the norm?

Should you tip in Sweden? Habits are changing fast thanks to new technology and a hard-pressed restaurant trade, writes James Savage.

Published: 5 April 2024 13:59 CEST
OPINION: Are tips in Sweden becoming the norm?

The Local’s guide to tipping in Sweden is clear: tip for good service if you want to, but don’t feel the pressure: where servers in the US, for instance, rely on tips to live, waiters in Sweden have collectively bargained salaries with long vacations and generous benefits. 

But there are signs that this is changing, and the change is being accelerated by card machines. Now, many machines offer three preset gratuity percentages, usually starting with five percent and going up to fifteen or twenty. Previously they just asked the customer to fill in the total amount they wanted to pay.

This subtle change to a user interface sends a not-so-subtle message to customers: that tipping is expected and that most people are probably doing it. The button for not tipping is either a large-lettered ‘No Tip’ or a more subtle ‘Fortsätt’ or ‘Continue’ (it turns out you can continue without selecting a tip amount, but it’s not immediately clear to the user). 

I’ll confess, when I was first presented with this I was mildly irked: I usually tip if I’ve had table service, but waiting staff are treated as professionals and paid properly, guaranteed by deals with unions; menu prices are correspondingly high. The tip was a genuine token of appreciation.

But when I tweeted something to this effect (a tweet that went strangely viral), the responses I got made me think. Many people pointed out that the restaurant trade in Sweden is under enormous pressure, with rising costs, the after-effects of Covid and difficulties recruiting. And as Sweden has become more cosmopolitain, adding ten percent to the bill comes naturally to many.

Boulebar, a restaurant and bar chain with branches around Sweden and Denmark, had a longstanding policy of not accepting tips at all, reasoning that they were outdated and put diners in an uncomfortable position. But in 2021 CEO Henrik Kruse decided to change tack:

“It was a purely financial decision. We were under pressure due to Covid, and we had to keep wages down, so bringing back tips was the solution,” he said, adding that he has a collective agreement and staff also get a union bargained salary, before tips.

Yet for Kruse the new machines, with their pre-set tipping percentages, take things too far:

“We don’t use it, because it makes it even clearer that you’re asking for money. The guest should feel free not to tip. It’s more important for us that the guest feels free to tell people they’re satisfied.”

But for those restaurants that have adopted the new interfaces, the effect has been dramatic. Card processing company Kassacentralen, which was one of the first to launch this feature in Sweden, told Svenska Dagbladet this week that the feature had led to tips for the average establishment doubling, with some places seeing them rise six-fold.

Even unions are relaxed about tipping these days, perhaps understanding that they’re a significant extra income for their members. Union representatives have often in the past spoken out against tipping, arguing that the practice is demeaning to staff and that tips were spread unevenly, with staff in cafés or fast food joints getting nothing at all. But when I called the Swedish Hotel and Restaurant Union (HRF), a spokesman said that the union had no view on the practice, and it was a matter for staff, business owners and customers to decide.

So is tipping now expected in Sweden? The old advice probably still stands; waiters are still not as reliant on tips as staff in many other countries, so a lavish tip is not necessary. But as Swedes start to tip more generously, you might stick out if you leave nothing at all.

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