Easy Tarte Tatin

To be honest, I am not the worlds biggest fan of French cuisine when it comes to eating out. I find that it lends itself to being overly pretentious and over hyped. And to that end, it is no surprise that most Michelin stars awarded seem to fall to establishments serving French food.

There is no problem with that, most are greatly deserved, but it is a little unfair when this filters down to local resturaunts who abandon their roots, and instead try to create dishes beyond their ability simply with the vain hope of trying to attract attention.

Personally; I like to eat, I like decent sized portions, and I admire the flavors in my meal. And most important of all I want value.

I really do not wish to be charged huge prices so I can sit and admire the appearance and presentation of the food, if I want art, I will go to a gallery! Nor do I want to sit and fret with worry about the "over-inflated" price I will be paying at the end of the meal, but if that is your thing, then cool. And, I sort of get it.

However, moving away from fine dining, home cooked French food is in all honesty not so disimilar from Italian, in principle.
The French have an equally huge passion for food (and of course wines) and many of the finest dishes as in Italian history, date back to being recipes enjoyed by simple country dwelling peasants.

In many respects it is a huge disservice to the origins of French food, to have many of these classic dishes served in high-end establishments at all.

Although after talking about such history, the much loved, Tarte Tatin which I am blogging about was reportedly first created as recent as the early 20th century! This dish though in common with what I was talking about earlier, is so incredibly simple, it could almost be Italian.

Yet for many people I know, they still seem to have a missunderstanding that tarte tatin is incredibly difficult. This really isn't the case. Even if you were (and I don't, lifes to short) to go to the trouble of creating your own puff pastry, it is an easily (albeit time consuming) acheivable task.

Below I have probably the easiest dessert recipe I have seen, and it produces an incredibly tasty tarte tatin. You could use Pears in lieu of apples, and the result is equally incredible.


INGREDIENTS:

8 cox Apples, or similar firm fleshed apples.
4 oz of caster sugar
4 oz butter

1 packet of readymade Puff Pastry.



METHOD

-Peel your apples, core them, and cut them in half, then half again, and finally into equal wedges. Roughly aim for the shape shown below. Although yours will probably be more uniform (i'm rubbish at cutting things).

-Next take a heavy bottomed (oven safe) frying pan, and over the bottom cover it with the butter, so it forms an equal light covering over the bottom. I'd say nothing larger than 12" diameter or increase quantities.

-Next evenly sprinkle the sugar so it forms a uniform coating.

 

-Once happy the sugar is uniform put the apples wedges onto the base upside down, so the pointy edge of the wedge is facing skyward. Start on the outside and keep going until the base is totally covered.

-Next place the pan over a medium high heat, cover the apples with a weight, such as a plate to keep them firmly in place while the butter and sugar caramelise with the apples beneath. While this is happening, turn on the Oven to around a medium high heat Gas 6 for example.

-After around 5-6 minutes gently lift the weighted plate, if the caramel between the apples is golden, your're ready for the next step, if not cover again and heat until your happy. If you like it darker, feel free to heat for longer.

-Once youre happy, take off the heat, and roll out your puff pastry, so it is just slightly larger than the circumference of the pan. Then gently and carefully layer the pastry over the apples (lift off plate first obviously), and tuck in the sides!
Warning!! Caramel is insanely hot don't touch the apples at this stage!

-Next you can place the pan straight into the oven, and bake for around twenty minutes until the pastry is puffed and golden.

-Once cooked, you need to rest the tatin for around 15 minutes, so it's cool enough to turn over without burning you're hands. Gently turn over the tatin, as can be seen mine was quite pale, but if you prefer the caramel darker do, do it that way!

SERVING SUGGESTION:

Tarte Tatin is in my opinion best served warm, with ice cold vanilla ice cream, but it would sit equally well with a nice custard. As is obligatory a completely rubbish photo is shown below! 

Can imagine yours will look better, but with no doubt in my mind I can say that it will taste as equally nice!  How easy is this dish!  Enjoy!