Receta Daring Bakers! Apple Tarte Tatin
For the March Daring bakers’ challenge, Korena from Korena in the Kitchen taught us that some treats are best enjoyed upside down. She challenged us to make a tarte tatin from scratch. I had so much fun it seems like I took a million pictures. This is one of those recipes that I want to make again and again and try different fillings because I bet almost all of them would be amazing. I will say that I got so excited that I forgot to peel the apples which the recipe called for, but it's delicious anyway and didn't take away from the dessert. I wish I had fresh whipped cream to go with it, or vanilla bean ice cream but even by itself it was so good. My caramel was a bit chewy but I liked the way it combined with the soft apples and the crunchy "crust".
Do you see the layers in the picture above? I think they're beautiful! Yum....
The recipe may seem long but it goes quick and it's not hard, it just takes a little time.
Apple Tarte Tatin
Preparation
time:
Rough
Puff Pastry: 15 minutes plus 1 hour chilling time (or overnight)
Tarte
Tatin: about 90 minutes for prep, cooking, and baking
Make
the pastry first, then while it chills, prepare the apples and caramel for the
filling. By the time you are ready to cover the filling with pastry, it will be
chilled enough to roll out.
Recipe 1: Rough Puff Pastry
Servings:
one single pastry crust
Ingredients
1
- cup (250 ml) (4½ oz) (125 gm) all-purpose (plain) flour
- 2/3
- cup (160 ml) (5 oz) (140 gm) unsalted butter, cold
- tsp fine salt
- cup (60 ml) ice cold water
Directions:
In a
medium bowl, combine the flour and salt. Cut the butter into small cubes and
add it to the flour. With a pastry blender (or two table knives) cut in the
butter until the mixture in crumbly but even, with pea-sized pieces of butter.
Make a well in the middle and pour in the ice cold water. Toss the flour/butter
and water together with a fork until the dough starts to clump together.
Turn
the dough out onto your work surface – don’t worry if there are still pockets
of dry flour. Gently knead and squeeze the mixture a few times just enough to
bring it together into a square (a bench scraper is helpful for this). Be
careful not to overwork the dough: there should be visible bits of butter and
it should still look very rough.
Lightly flour your work surface and
rolling pin, and roll the dough out into a rectangle about 10” (25 cm) long.
Fold the bottom third of the dough up into the middle, and fold the top third
down, like you are folding a letter. This is one fold. Turn the dough a one
quarter turn so that one of the open edges is facing you, and roll out again
into a 10” (25 cm) rectangle. Fold again - this is the second fold. Repeat the
rolling and folding 3 more times, for 5 folds total. Your dough will get
smoother and neater looking with each fold (the pictures show the first and
fifth folds).
If your kitchen is very warm and
the dough gets too soft/sticky to do all the folds at once, chill it in the
fridge for 20-30 minutes between folds. After the fifth fold, use your rolling
pin to tap the dough into a neat square. Wrap the dough in plastic and chill
for a least 1 hour, or overnight.
Recipe 2: Tarte Tatin
Servings: 8-10
Ingredients
6 large or 7-8 medium-sized apples (I used Braeburn and Granny Smith)
Juice of half a lemon
6 tablespoons (90 ml) (3 oz) (85
gm) unsalted butter (or use salted and skip the salt)
1-1/3 cups (320 ml) (9½ oz) (265
gm) granulated sugar, divided
pinch salt
Rough Puff Pastry, above
Directions:
Peel
the apples and cut them into quarters. Remove the cores in such a way that
each apple quarter has a flat inner side: when placed rounded-side-up, it
should sit on a flat base. Place the apples in a large bowl and toss with the
lemon juice and 1/3 cup (80 ml) (2-1/2 oz) (65 gm) sugar. This will help draw
out some of the moisture from the apples and prevent an overly runny caramel.
Set aside for 15 minutes.
Preheat
the oven to moderately hot 375˚F/190°C/gas mark 5. Melt the butter in a very
heavy, 9” or 10” (23 cm or 24 cm) oven-proof saucepan over medium heat, then
sprinkle with the remaining 1 cup (240 ml) (7 oz) (200 gm) sugar. Stir with a
whisk until the sugar melts and becomes a pale, smooth caramel. The sugar will
seem dry and chunky at first, then will start to melt and smooth out. If the
butter appears to separate out from the caramel, just keep whisking until it is
a cohesive sauce.
Remove from the heat.
Discard the liquid that has come
out of the apples, then add the apple quarters to the caramel, round side down.
They won’t all fit in a single layer at first, but as they cook they will
shrink a bit. Cook over medium heat for 15-20 minutes, pressing down gently on
the apples with a spoon to cover them in the caramel liquid. Move the apples
around the pan gently so that they all cook evenly, trying to keep them round
side down. When the apples have shrunk enough to mostly fit in a single layer
and are starting to soften but still keep their shape, remove the pan from the
heat.
With a wooden spoon, arrange the
apples, round side down, in a single layer of concentric circles covering the
bottom of the pan. Set aside until the filling stops steaming before covering
with pastry.
Remove
the pastry from the fridge, roll it out on a lightly floured surface, and trim
it into a circle about 1” (25 mm) in diameter larger than your saucepan. Lay it
over the filling, tucking in the edges between the apples and the sides of the
pan, and cut a few steam vents in the pastry.
Place the saucepan on a rimmed
baking sheet (just in case the filling decides to bubble over the sides) and
place in the preheated moderately hot 375˚F/190°C/gas mark 5 oven. Bake for
30-35 minutes, until the pastry is puffed and golden brown, increasing the oven
temperature to moderately hot 400˚F/200°C/gas mark 6 during the last 5 – 10
minutes of baking if the pastry isn’t browning properly.
Remove
from the oven and let sit just until the caramel stops bubbling. Immediately
place a serving platter (slightly larger in diameter than the saucepan) over
the pastry. Wearing oven mitts, grab hold of the saucepan and platter and
quickly invert everything to unmold the Tatin onto the platter. If any of the
apples stick to the pan or come out of place, rearrange them with a spatula.
The tarte Tatin can be served warm from the oven or at room temperature.
Suggested accompaniments include vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, or crème
fraîche.