Puddings & Desserts
Puddings & Desserts
Tarte tatin
A fabulous fruity dessert that's perfect for entertaining all year round
Tarte tatin is usually made with puff pastry but my recipe is a little different as I find that puff pastry tends to burn around the edges where it’s come into contact with the caramel, leaving a bitter taste: instead, the pastry here comes out of the oven deliciously spongy, having absorbed some of the caramel and the juices from the cooked apples. I like to serve this with whipped double cream, with a good spoonful of apricot brandy stirred into it!
Ingredients
Serves 6-8
- FOR THE PASTRY:
- 200g plain flour
- Pinch of salt
- 3 tbsp caster sugar
- 140g cold butter, diced
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1 tbsp cold milk
- grated rind of half a lemon
- FOR THE CARAMEL:
- 25g butter
- 115g caster sugar
- juice of half a lemon
- FOR THE FRUIT LAYER:
- 4 dessert apples (ideally Cox's Orange Pippin)
- juice of half a lemon
Method
First, make the pastry. Sift the flour and salt together, then stir in the sugar. Add the butter, egg, milk and lemon rind. Work together with your hands (or in a food processor on a low speed) until you have a soft dough. Wrap in clingfilm and leave in the fridge for at least a hour, preferably longer.
For the caramel, first grease a deep, robust round tin (ideally a cast-iron tarte tatin tin). Then melt the butter with the sugar and lemon juice in a small pan. Once the sugar has dissolved, increase the heat and boil until the sugar has turned light brown and caramelised (about three minutes). Pour into the tin (being careful - it will be very hot) and leave to one side to harden.
Next, slice the apples (no need to peel them) and toss in the lemon juice. Arrange on top of the caramel. Roll out the pastry out on a well-floured board until it's slightly larger than the tin, then lift up on the rolling pin and use it to cover the fruit. Tuck in the edges of the pastry and prick the top a few times with a fork. Bake at 170C (fan oven) for 40 mins. Serve at room temperature.
A Cook's Plot Tip
This is one of those handy pudding recipes that you can prepare ahead when you're entertaining so that you're not stuck in the kitchen at the end of the meal. The pastry can be prepared up to two days ahead and kept in the fridge; the apples can be sliced and left in lemon juice in the morning and the tart itself can be baked just before everyone arrives and then left to cool to room temperature while you're eating the rest of your meal. It can be made with other fruit too - plums and apricots work really well, for example.