Friday 22 August 2014

Tarte Tatin: The French Recipe!


After my recent trip to France, I felt inspired to try my hand at this simple yet delicious pastry dish.

This French classic turns the plain old apple pie on its head. Instead of soft clouds of sweetly sour fruit tucked beneath a comforting blanket of biscuity pastry, the tatin brazenly displays its wares, stickily caramelised and decadently buttery, on the outside – the humble base reduced to a mere vehicle for the apples in their sugary finery.
Legend has it that Stéphanie Tatin, proprietor of a provincial French hotel, left apples for a pie cooking for too long on the stove one day. Alerted to her mistake by the smell of burning, quick-thinking sister attempted to rescue the situation by covering them with pastry and baking the pie anyway. "After turning out the upside down tart," Wikipedia concludes, "she was surprised to find how much the hotel guests appreciated the dessert." Not the first time a chef has tried to pass off a mistake as a special!
Larousse Gastronomique spoils this charming little anecdote, however, with the fact that "the upside-down tart, made with apples or pears, is an ancient speciality of Sologne and is found throughout OrlĂ©anais." But still, berets off to les soeurs Tatin for bringing it to wider attention – it's a real corker.


Here are the ingredients for a Tarte Tatin for 6 people:


For the filling
- About 8 pippin apples
- 150g of butter
- 150 g of sugar


For the dough
- 200 g flour
- 100g butter
- 25 g of sugar
- A pinch of salt
- An egg


Tarte tatin can be done with a short dough or shortbread. Here's how to prepare a shortbread.

For the pastry
1) Mix the flour, sugar and salt.
2) Cut the butter into small pieces and crumble it with your fingertips to get a coarse sand texture.
3) Add the whole egg, knead quickly and form a ball of dough.
4) Reserve the dough cool.


Preparing the Apples
1) Peel the apples, remove the seeds and cut them into quarters.
2) Take a pan (Tefal type) and place it directly on the heat.
3) Make a caramel in the bottom of the by heating sugar and butter. Warning: watch color as caramel should be blond but not too dark.
4) Remove from heat, place the apples in the caramel.
5) Cover the pan with foil and place it back on the heat for 5-10 minutes until the apples begin to cook and absorb the caramel.
6) Roll out the shortcrust pastry. When the apples have cooled, place the dough on top, tuck the edges inside the pan and prick the dough lightly with a fork.


Baking

1) Cook the apple pie in the oven to 200 ° until the dough is cooked and the caramel back on the edges of the mold.
2) Turn out the pie hot, being careful not to burn yourself!

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