Gluten Free French Apple Frangipane Tart

We made this recipe during my second term at Le Cordon Bleu Sydney.  As part of my Gluten Free Challenge independent study, I created a gluten-free version of this tart for my classmates.  My favorite part of this dish is the Frangipane filling because it tastes just like marzipan.  When I was a little girl, my mom would buy fruit shaped marzipan treats for my sister and I to eat on Saturday mornings for breakfast.  I don't know if I love marzipan so much because the taste of it floods back blissful childhood memories, or because it is just plain delicious!  The crunchy buttery crust with soft apple and frangipane filling compliment each other perfectly.

Preheat oven to 350 F.  Make sweet pastry.  Combine flour, cold diced butter, pinch of salt, and lemon zest and mix on low speed until yielding a breadcrumb consistency  Add egg and vanilla and continue to mix to bring dough together.  Roll the pastry up and flatten out.   Refrigerate until dough becomes cold to make it easy to roll.

Flour your work surface the surface of the chilled sweet pasty with Sydney Blend, and roll out to 2.5mm.  Roll the dough over a pie tin.  If the dough breaks, you can use your hands to piece it back together.  Brush crust with a thin layer of egg white and bake crust on 350 degrees F for 10min and remove to cool.

Make Frangipane cream. Cream butter and sugar together in a mixer.  Combine gluten free flour and almond flour together.  On a low speed, alternate adding the eggs and the flours until all ingredients are evenly incorporated

Cut each apple quarter in three and sweat the apples in a buttered frying pan, then add cinnamon sugar to taste.  Make sure that apples are cooked enough with a slightly brown hue.  

Arrange the Tart.  After the crust cools, pipe or spread a layer of frangipane into the crust to fill 60% of the way.  Arrange sliced apples on top of the frangipane.  Return to bake in the oven until frangipane is cooked (use a toothpick to gage whether the frangipane is cooked.)  Serve warm or room temperature with vanilla or hazelnut ice cream.