Tarte Tatin with Brandy Cream

Name: Tarte Tatin with Brandy Cream
Total time: 7200 s
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: British
Ingredients: 100 g golden caster sugar; 50 g butter; 1 tsp vanilla extract; 6-8 medium-sized, quite tart apples; 1 sheet ready rolled puff pastry, or 1 quantity of rough puff; 200 ml carton crème fraîche; 2 tbsp icing sugar; 1 tbsp brandy or calvados

Joanne @JoanneinBath

Bath, UK

This classic dessert, cooked upside down and then inverted, comes from France, and is believed to have been created by the Tatin sisters after one of them mistakenly caramelized some apples she was poaching in butter and sugar. The tarte has to be started on the stove top and finished in the oven, so you need a heavy based frying pan that can go in the oven. You can use store bought ready rolled puff pastry, but make sure it is all-butter, or make the rough puff pastry in my recipe list. Some recipes instruct that the pastry should go on top of the cooked apples while they are still warm, but I think this makes the end result too soggy, so, if you have time, leave the apples to cool completely before finishing the tarte in the oven. This is a rustic, homely dessert, but the mixture of buttery pastry, vanilla scented caramel and tart apples is just so delicious that no one will care if it looks a bit rustic!

Saved

Ingredients

120 mins

4 servings

100 ggolden caster sugar
50 gbutter
1 tspvanilla extract
6-8medium-sized, quite tart apples
1 sheetready rolled puff pastry, or 1 quantity of rough puff
200 mlcarton crème fraîche
2 tbspicing sugar
1 tbspbrandy or calvados

Saved

Steps

120 mins

1

Peel the apples and scoop out the cores with a teaspoon, cut the stalks out with a sharp knife.
2

Put the sugar in the pan, together with 25ml water, place on a medium heat until the sugar has dissolved and is beginning to bubble.
3

Remove from the heat and stir in the butter and vanilla extract.
4

Place the apple halves in the pan, first coating them in the caramel, cut sides up. Fill in any big gaps with smaller pieces of apple. Return the pan to the heat and cook gently for 5 minutes, shaking the pan a couple of times. Allow to cool completely.
5

Roll the pastry out, place it on top of the apples and trim round the edges so there is an overlap. You can put the tarte in the fridge at this stage and cook it later.
6

Preheat the oven to 200°C/Gas 6 and cook the tarte for about 30 minutes until the pastry is golden and the caramel is bubbling around the sides.
7

Put a large plate over the top of the pan and quickly, with oven gloves, invert the tarte on to it. At this stage I put the tarte back in the oven to crisp up the sides a little, but you can serve it straight away.
8

To make the brandy cream, simply mix together the crème fraîche, icing sugar and calvados. Serve the tarte in slices with a dollop of cream.

Saved

Cooksnaps

Saved

Joanne @JoanneinBath

on January 10, 2016 21:38

Bath, UK

I enjoy cooking mostly because I like eating, but also because it's a great way to relax at the end of the day. I work in book publishing and especially enjoy creating cookbooks written by cooks who love cooking and sharing food rather than creating show stopping dishes that take days to put together. As Nigel Slater would say; 'we are, after all, simply making ourselves something to eat'. I live with my lovely daughter Isobel who rarely pays any kind of compliment but will occasionally admit something I've cooked was quite nice, and our dog Piper, who will eat anything.