Dessert Auction

Brett's church has the greatest Super Bowl Sunday tradition! It's a Dessert Auction!

The church bakers bring their best homemade desserts for a silent auction. Desserts are to be self-contained, i.e. the containers, dishes, pans, go with the dessert. Nothing is returned. Everyone gets to view the display, make their bids and soon after services conclude the bidding concludes. It's a fundraiser to assist with tuition for the church's college students who are going to a Mennonite school. Over the years tens of thousands of dollars have been raised! The lucky bidders have a dessert to take to their Super Bowl party. Talk about a win-win!!!

This was Brett's contribution this year! It's a French Apple Almond Tart featured in the October 1997 issue of Bon Appetit. Isn't it beautiful!!!

It was a process to come up with this gorgeous dessert!

On Wedenesday evening, Brett came to our house with this beautiful fruit tart for tasting.

 He, Moira, Audrey, Rich and I tasted and critiqued and unanimously agreed this wasn't the one. It was GORGEOUS, but we didn't care for the filling or the crust. We found a recipe for a citrus tart that sounded nice, so it was back to the drawing board with that one. On Saturday evening, Brett came over with that creation, complete with candied orange peel for garnish (sorry no photo), but again, it was nixed. So at 7 pm, we poured over my cookbooks and recipe box and came up with the Apple Almond Tart recipe, which Jeremy made for our 1997 Christmas Eve dinner. I've never made it but we remembered how delicious it was, so that was the dessert of choice. Because it was getting late, we didn't want to go to the store, so we combined the ingredients we both had and Brett asked me to walk him through this recipe. We had a great time! (I really love cooking/baking with my kids!!)

The auction was great! More desserts this year than last with prices as low as $30 or so and as high as $100!! There was a particular chocolate cake that the girls wanted, so Brett was busy ensuring their bid, but the last he looked his tart was at $60!!!

Here's the recipe.

French Apple Almond Tart – Bon Appetit, October 1997

For crust:

2 large egg yolks

2 tablespoons Calvados or brandy (we used brandy because that's what we had)

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

2 tablespoons sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

9 tablespoons (1 stick plus 1 tablespoon) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 -inch pieces

For filling

1 1/4 cups blanched slivered almonds

3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar

2 large eggs

3 tablespoons Calvados or brandy

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

1/4 teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

3 tart green apples, peeled, quartered, cored, cut into 1/8-inch-thick wedges (used Jonagold and Pink Lady apples because that's what we had)

1/4 cup apricot preserves

Make crust:
Stir egg yolks and Calvados in small bowl to blend. Combine flour, sugar and salt in processor. Add butter; cut in, using on/off turns, until butter is size of small peas. With machine running, add yolk mixture. Process until large moist clumps form. Gather dough into ball; flatten into disk. Wrap dough in plastic; refrigerate until cold, about 1 hour. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Keep chilled. Let soften slightly before rolling out.). (We put in freezer for 30 minutes, to speed up the process!)

Roll out dough on lightly floured surface to 14-inch round. Transfer to 11-inch-diameter tart pan with removable bottom. Fold overhang in and press, forming double-thick sides. We didn't do this because we didn't want it to be too think. So just made sure crust was even all the way around. Chill while making filling.

Make filling:
Combine almonds, 3/4 cup sugar, eggs, 1 tablespoon Calvados, extracts and salt in processor. Blend until soft paste forms. Add 4 tablespoons butter; blend 10 seconds. Spread in crust. Chill until firm, about 45 minutes.

Meanwhile, stir apples, 1 tablespoon Calvados and 1 tablespoon sugar in large bowl. Let stand 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400°F. Drain apples; overlap in concentric circles atop filling. Melt 2 tablespoons butter; brush over apples. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon sugar.

Bake tart 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350°F. Bake until apples are tender, about 45 minutes. Transfer to rack. Stir preserves and 1 tablespoon Calvados in small saucepan over low heat until preserves melt. Strain into small bowl; brush over apples. Cool. (Can be made 8 hours ahead. Let stand at room temperature.)


Bon Appetit recipes often have lots of ingredients and steps, but the results are worth it!


Proud of you Brett for tackling such a recipe! Wouldn't we love to taste it!!! I'm sure it was delicious!