Apple Tarte Tatin

Hello :)  Tuesday morning goal: to recreate the apple tarte tatin in last weeks issue of Good Living.

RECIPE: APPLE TARTE TATIN (adapted from Good Living, 10.07.12)

Ingredients-

8 golden delicious apples

50g butter

125g castor sugar

500g puff pastry 

1 egg, beaten

Creme fraiche, cream or ice-cream for serving

1. Peel apples and cut in half lengthwise. Use a melon baller to remove core and trim off any stalks. 

My local grocer/deli didn't have any golden delicious apples (apparently they're a summer variety) so we used granny smiths, still perfect for cooking with. We also used a knife to remove the core and stalks. Who has a melon baller?!

2. Melt butter in an ovenproof 25-centimetre frypan and sprinkle with half the sugar. Pack apples in tightly, rounded side down. Cut one or two apples into quarters and squeeze in- they will shrink as they cook. 

3. Scatter with remaining sugar and cook over medium heat, letting them hiss and bubble for about 20 minutes, until there is a lightly golden caramel beneath. Watch out for browning or burning but be brave, you want real caramel. Press apples down into the pan as they soften. Heat oven to 220C.

(I didn't have a large enough oven-proof frypan, so we cooked the apples in a regular frypan then transferred it to a pie dish)

4. Roll out pastry and drape generously over apples, trimming edges so you can tuck it all around (grease sides with a little butter for easier turning out). Prick pastry lightly with a fork and brush with a beaten egg.

Also, the only pastry at the grocer/deli was this gluten, wheat and dairy free variety. Even though we knew it wouldn't be buttery or very flaky, we decided to give it a go. The specks you can see on the pastry are chia seeds, so it's a nice healthier alternative. 

5. Bake tart for five minutes, then reduce heat to 200C and bake for 20 minutes or until pastry is crisp and golden.

6. Cool for five minutes, then place a large flat serving platter over the pan, and very carefully invert. Some apples may stick to the pan- just pop them back into place.

7. Serve hot with coconut icecream :)

Mission accomplished? 

Yes! Sure it looks completely different from the photo in the recipe, as we used granny smith apples and a denser gluten free puff pastry, and forgot to add the sugar to the apple and butter mixture until the last few minutes (my mistake), but it tasted very delicious! Apples, sugar & butter = genius.

I was worried about inverting it, but I think it turned out pretty well. And we ended up gobbling a few slices each, so that's all that really counts, yeah?

Have you made a tarte tatin before?

Hannah x