Apple Tart with Bone Broth
This apple tart is nutritionally supercharged with bone broth to sneakily support your health while having a delicious family friendly dessert to serve up for morning tea, afternoon tea or just because.
I love meal prepping snacks for the week
It’s well into Autumn (in Sydney, Australia) and an apple tart is high on the rotation of snacks to make. If I can meal prep one snack that lasts us the full 5 working days, my mental load benefits. Meal prepping my snacks means there’s less washing up. There’s no deviation from the plan to quick snacks with less goodness. And I’m a creature of habit, I have no problem eating the same thing everyday (not for lunch or dinner). I love opening the fridge in the morning and knowing that my porridge is already made. It free’s up my brain to focus on the important things, like making a cup of tea.
When it comes to snacks, there are a few boxes I want them to tick. I’m still picky about what foods I feed my almost 2 year old (omg he’s growing so fast). The snacks must be:
- Full of wholefood ingredients.
- Lower on the sugar load – using maple syrup, dates, rice malt syrup or coconut sugar.
- Ideally featuring a fruit or veg (both if I’m lucky).
- Low on chocolate (AKA caffeine) – he’s still little, he’s got enough energy and I’d prefer these snacks to be more natural.
- Not too sweet (tastewise) – BJ is still developing his palette and what I feed him in these early years shapes so much more than the 1 hour around when he ate the snack. It’s shaping his views and beliefs of food, his world and what’s a good snack.
- Homemade – this is in part due to our location. We don’t have many places where I can buy snacks that would be sufficient (except the local cafe for a sneaky croissant every now and then) and obviously, homemade is what this site is all about.
- Mostly dairy free – we’re a house that doesn’t tolerate cows milk too well. Although I am experimenting with it at the moment.
- No vegetable or seed oils – in short, they do our bodies no good and the way they’re made is gnarly. They’re rancid before they leave the manufacturing plant they’re made in. I opt for fats like: butter, ghee, tallow, lard, extra virgin olive oil and coconut oil when cooking. Fats like this are good and deliver important nutrients our bodies love and need.
- Easy to chop into bars and can be transported to the park at the bottom of the pram.
- Easy to meal prep and ideally can be made in stages. In the example of this recipe, I’ll usually make the pastry a day or 2 in advance. This breaks up my time spent in the kitchen.
There are 2 parts to this recipe:
The apple filling
Made from a mixture of:
- Tart apples with buttery ghee. Use butter, extra virgin olive oil, macadamia oil or coconut oil.
- Spice love from the vanilla bean and cinnamon.
- Sweetened with coconut sugar, I used 1/4 cup but I’d recommend increasing it to 1/2 cup if you like things a little sweeter.
- and Gevity Body Glue™ Natural
What is Gevity Body Glue™?
I found Gevity through my Mum who accidentally bought extra’s of their mayo (Great Guts Mayo) – a wonderful mistake that I reaped the benefit of. Immediately Great Guts Mayo went on EVERYTHING. We used the jar within a few days, definitely no more than a week. One of my meal hacks to making a simple delicious meals is to let yourself off the hook and buy some delicious toppings (think: sauces, pesto, dip, ferments) to make your life easy and the flavour goodness flow. I talk about this in more detail in Get Your Sh*t Together my free meal prep starter guide. As you can imagine, this mayonnaise fit the bill perfectly.
Back to the sneaky goodness of this recipe…
Bone broth was an essential ingredient in healing my son’s eczema and food sensitivities. Introducing him to food set us on a path of an interesting 8 months. It was painful for him and stressful for us as new parents who had no idea what we were doing, except that we knew we were doing something wrong. Food sensitivities are a sign of inflammation in the gut, which causes the reaction. So it was through my studies with Oh Baby Academy that I had the confidence to take matters into my own hands and help my son heal his gut. Bone broth is known for reducing inflammation and aids with digestion and Gevity Body Glue™ is the world’s Most Nutrient Dense Bone Broth – packed with 10 x more collagen than traditional bone broths (they’ve done the tests on this). I’m going to talk more about what bone broth is and why it’s so important for everyone but especially if you have a child suffering from food sensitivities.
I love to make my own broth. But having a jar of Gevity Body Glue™ in my house, means I can nutritionally boost my meals in 5 seconds flat and only dirty 1 tablespoon in the process.
In the case of this recipe I’ve used Natural which has next to no flavour, especially when consumed chilled, making it an easy addition to all your sweet creations. Think: smoothies, tarts, raw desserts and ice blocks.
The tart shell
This tart shell is gluten free and dairy free. It’s made from coconut flakes, almonds, coconut flour, tapioca, eggs, ghee and a pinch of salt. This recipe was adapted from a Cookidoo recipe: Almond Shortcrust Pastry. I love how low maintenance it is.
As another option, you could use this crumb. Or use a standard shortcrust pastry.
Next up
Make your tart base. It’s as simple as blitzing everything in your blender / food processor. Press out into a greased tray and leave to rest in the fridge for 20 minutes or overnight.
The apple mix is simply thrown into a pot and cooked until tender and thick.
Pour apple mixture into tart base
and bake until firm, around 20 minutes.
Serve
I love this tart chilled, as is. But it’d be lovely with some cream, yoghurt, icecream, cashew cream.
Apple Tart with Bone Broth
Ingredients
Tart shell
- 1/2 cup almonds
- 1/2 cup coconut flakes tightly packed
- 120 g ghee
- 80 g coconut flour
- 80 g tapioca flour
- 2 eggs
- A pinch of salt
Apple filling
- 5 medium sized apples around 800g - 1kg
- 1 tbsp ghee
- 1 cup water
- 1 tbsp Gevity Body Glue™
- 1 tbsp tapioca flour
- 1 tsp vanilla bean
- 1 tbsp cinnamon
- 1/4 - 1/2 cup coconut sugar
Instructions
Tart shell
- Preheat oven to 200 degrees C (fan forced).
- Make your tart shell by blitzing almonds and coconut flakes to make a flour.
- Add remaining ingredients and mix on a low/medium speed until combined.
- Grease your round baking tray with butter/ghee/tallow/olive oil (I used a 21cm cast iron shallow frying pan).
- Scoop tart mixture into tray and press to make an even tart shell. This is easily done with wet hands or the help of a square of baking paper.
- Put tart shell in fridge for 20 minutes to chill. Once the 20 minutes is up, bake in oven for 10 minutes.
Apple filling
- Chop apples into quarters and cut out the core. Place cores in a jar, you can make your own apple cider vinegar with these - for free, how cool. Optional - cut apple again in half (lengthways), so they're in smaller pieces.
- Heat ghee in a small pot, add apples mix to coat and cook for 3 minutes.
- Add water and Gevity Body Glue™, place lid on pot and cook covered for 10 minutes at a gentle simmer. Note - some of your apples will begin to break a part. This isn't an issue as it creates a denser tart that stays together well. You could reduce the water by half and cook for less time if you wanted.
- Make a paste with tapioca, vanilla, cinnamon and a few spoonfuls of the apple liquid. Mix really well to combine all the flour and add to pot.
- Add coconut sugar and continue cooking for 5 minutes or until apple mixture is a thick-ish consistency (thick but not runny). The tart will thicken further in the oven, however we don't want it runny that it'll soften the tart shell base.
- Remove apple mixture and scoop into tart shell.
- Place in oven and bake for 15 - 20 minutes.
- Serve warm, although it's so much better when served chilled from the fridge. I like to cut into muesli bar shapes and pack to take to the park.
Video
Notes
The tart shell
I've used a gluten free tart shell in this recipe. If you'd prefer and basic shortcrust will work. So will a puff pastry. And if you're short on time or have a pack in the freezer, absolutely use that instead of making yourself.Bone broth in a tart recipe... eeeek
I know, I know. Your brain might be freaking out. Bone broth has been used in cold sweet products for a long time because when bone broth is cold, it doesn't impart any flavour. This is a win win because you get to keep the flavour profile you want while boosting the nutritional benefits on your food. Amazing!Apple filling
Some of your apples will begin to break a part when cooking. This isn't an issue as it creates a denser tart that stays together well. You could reduce the water by half and cook for less time if you wanted a formed apple wedge look.Storage
Store tart in fridge and eat within 4 days. I haven't tried to freeze it yet but I reckon it'd freeze really well.
