05 January 2010

TWD Birthday Party: Tarte Tatin



Today is the 2nd anniversary of Tuesdays With Dorie, and in celebration we had two recipes to choose from, after a highly competitive voting process.  I voted that we make the Cocoa-Buttermilk Birthday Cake, but after seeing a long list of complaints on the site about the cake being dry and the icing not turning out properly, I decided at the last minute to try the other recipe, Tarte Tatin.  I've complained here before about fruit desserts, but I'm trying, y'all.  I'm really trying.

This recipe was another super simple one, in ingredients and technique.  For the crust we were invited to use pie crust, tart crust, or puff pastry.  I went with puff pastry, which makes up in ease for what it lacks in longetivity.  I used a cake pan to cut out a circle roughly the same size as the 8"-ish pan I was using.


I was a little hasty with the unrolling of the dough there.  


Then I melted butter in my stainless pan, sprinkled in some sugar, and layered in cut yellow apples.

mmm.  butter.



 hoorah! apples!


2 gether 4 eva

It took longer than anticipated for my sugar to caramelize;  I must have let it cook for about 25 minutes.  Sometimes I really miss having a gas stove and being able to see the heat level.




Once the sugar was nice and brown, I plopped the pastry circle on top, and slid the whole into the oven for 30 minutes.

before



after

I burned the AYCH out of my hand turning this out, but the pain was (somewhat) ameliorated when I saw that it came out perfectly.


No stuck apples, no runover.  Yay!  I had been concerned because the pastry shrank;  but there was no hangover and the tarte was just lovely, all golden brown and shiny.  My caramel was liquidy at first, too;  but I didn't lose much of it. 

The taste is divine.  The apples cooked down perfectly and the puff pastry makes it seem like fruited baklava.  A definite make-again, especially if the leftovers hold up.  I banged this out in less than two hours' time.  Next time I might try a mite less butter and sugar.  I am trying to figure out a way to take it to a party.  I wonder if I can do everything short of baking and stick the pan in the fridge with the dough on top?

I still might make the cake...we shall see!  I'm not sure if I'll do next week's deep-fried cookies...

Thanks to Laurie for founding TWD!   I've only been baking along since October and it's been great fun.

6 comments:

Maura said...

oh this looks delicious. I might have to try that. I love all the process pictures.

Valerie Gamine said...

Well done! I had to cook my caramel for quite a long time as well, maybe 30 minutes. The apples were starting to become too soft so I finally put it in the oven. The taste was still spot on. :)

Susan said...

Your tarte looks perfect! I sure wish I had made this one. Those swirls on my cake...I have this special tool that is on the end of my hand. :D Thanks for stopping by!

Paula said...

Tarte looks delish. I had the same experience cooking my apples.

Note regarding next week's treat: I took them to same party as this apple tatin and they were definitely the most popular. Maybe because they are so easy to eat.

Karine said...

Your tarte tatin sounds delicious! Great job :)

miss kate said...

Thanks everybody! I am glad to hear I wasn't not the only one with slow-cooking apples.

@Maura: you SO TOTALLY SHOULD!

@Romaine: so they (the deep fried cookies) keep ok? They sound yummy, but it just seems like a lot of hassle to go through, especially if they really need to be eaten same-day. Though I have found that most of the instructions to "eat same-day" or "must be consumed within 1 day" have not really held water with me. I STILL have most of the Christmas cheesecake in the fridge and it's fine.

Susan: HA. I'm still going to practice that on my next non-decorated cake. They looked so elegant, like paisley!

 

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