Tarte Tatin… it’s French, it has a mysterious aura surrounding it, it’s romantic and ohhh la la! And until this past year it was such a pain in the neck to make that I rarely bothered with it. Ok ok, once in a blue moon I’d whip one up for someone really special, but they had to be REALLY special, like really really REALLY special.
And now, thanks to seeing an episode of MasterChef Australia this past summer, I have a whole new easy peasy tarte tatin that I can throw together and bake in less than 45 minutes! I’ve tweaked their recipe a bit but it’s still the same technique to get the awesome results. I told Tim that I was making this as my Tuesday Treats offering on this blog, but really, I just wanted to eat a big plate of crisp puff pastry, lightly cinnamon flavored, juicy apples and gooey caramel today.
Let me just tell you right off the bat that I don’t “do” puff pastry. I used to feel like a failure each time I tried to make it and got a flop instead of buttery light layers of dough. Not anymore folks! Now I proudly stroll right to the freezer section of the grocery store and buy a box of Pepperidge Farms Frozen Puff Pastry dough. Uh huh, no guilt at all over it. So if you’re like me and have avoided making any recipe that called for puff pastry dough because of a high failure rate when you make the pastry, move forward… to your grocer… and buy that frozen dough with pride!
There are much more important things in life than whether or not you can make perfect puff pastry from scratch. Things like eating Tarte Tatin for starters!
So let’s get right down to the recipe and the easy peasy method of making this tarte tatin, shall we? First up, the ingredients. So few things to make something so delicious…amazing!
I peel, halve and core my apples, then put them into a bowl and sprinkle them with lemon juice. You can squeeze half a lemon over them if you have one handy or do what I did today, sprinkle lemon juice right out of a bottle. Yeah, I’m not picky about stuff like that.
Now set those aside for a few minutes while you press out the thawed puff pastry dough. I use a 10″ cast iron skillet to make my tarte tatin, so one sheet of puff pastry won’t cover the entire pan. I just cut the second sheet into four equal strips…
… and then I gently press them onto the sides of the first sheet in order to seal the edges. Just don’t press too hard, you don’t want to ruin all the flaky layers of butter in the dough.
Once that’s done, cover it lightly with a piece of plastic wrap and ignore it while you make the base of the tarte. Slice the stick of butter into pats, then place them all around the bottom of the skillet. After that I sprinkle the cup of sugar evenly over the top of the butter so that the entire bottom of the pan is covered.
The next thing is the spices. I prefer cinnamon to vanilla beans, but you can go traditional if that floats your boat. I also sprinkle 1/2 teaspoon of salt over the top of the sugar to cut down on the sweetness and heightened the flavor of the apples.
Now it’s time to layer on the apples. Be sure to put them rounded side down since the bottom becomes the top once this pastry is done baking. I also cut a couple of the halves in half once again so that I can use the smaller pieces to fill in any gaps. Why? Cuz I love apples!
That picture doesn’t show you how tightly all my apples were once I’d squished them all into the pan. You pretty much can’t even SEE the sugar by the time I get done shoving apples in the pan. Once that’s done, I gently fold my puff pastry dough in half, then carry it over to the pan and lay it on top…folding it back out over the apples to cover them. If you want to trim off the corners on the dough, now is the time to do it…before you turn on the heat. Oh and be sure to tuck, tuck, fold all the edges of the puff pastry down around the edges of the apples. They’ll form the outer crust when you flip it over, holding in all the apple goodness.
That’s me pricking the dough with a fork. It won’t cure the inherent puffiness of the dough, but it does help a little bit. More on how to tame your puffy dough in a little bit, for now let’s get the heat cranked up and melt some sugar!
See the big pouf of puff pastry dough in the center of the pan? Yeah, you don’t want that! So, after the pan has been bubbling away on the stove top for 15 minutes, take a spoon, scoop up some of the sugar syrup that’s bubbling around the edges of the pan and spread it over the entire surface of the dough. While you spread it out, press down on the dough to let the steam escape.
There, I’ve tamed the puffy dough beast and glazed the entire top of it with sugar syrup so that it gets a nice crispy, brown crust while it bakes. Time to get this baby into the oven for 20 minutes!
After 20 minutes is up, open your oven and take a peek. Your easy peasy tarte tatin should look like this:
It’s done! Take it out of the oven carefully, cuz it’s molten-lava hot at this point, then let it cool on the stovetop or a rack for 5 minutes before you carefully, VERY carefully, flip it upside down onto a pretty plate for serving. Now stand back and admire your work like I did.
And it just keeps getting better…
…and better!
Should I tell you that I’m eating a piece of my easy peasy tarte tatin while I’m typing this? Umm, probably not, but it’s too late to take it back so it’ll be our little secret, ok? Don’t hate me because I’m eating this, just go grab the ingredients and make one for yourself tonight. You’ll be SO glad youd did!
- 1 stick butter, cut into pats
- 1 cup sugar
- ½ lemon, juiced
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- 1 teaspoon Cinnamon (some prefer to use a vanilla pod - it's tradional)
- 6 - 8 apples, Granny Smith or your favorite baking apple, peeled, cored and halved
- For the Crust:
- 2 Sheets of Puff Pastry dough (I use 1 box of Pepperidge Farm Frozen Dough) - Thawed, unopened in fridge.
- Preheat oven to 425F
- Peel and cut the apples in half. Scoop out the core. Place in a bowl and sprinkle with lemon juice to stop them from turning brown.
- Place the first puff pastry dough sheet on a lightly floured flat surface. Cut the remaining sheet into four equal pieces, then place them around the sides of the first sheet and press gently to seal the seams. You may cut the dough into a round sheet if you wish, but I just tuck the corners down into the pan around the apples. Cover the dough with a sheet of plastic wrap till needed.
- Place the butter peices evenly around the bottom of a 9-10 inch diameter heavy cast iron or other oven safe pan. Sprinkle the sugar evenly over the top of the butter. Sprinkle a pinch of salt and 1 tsp. of Cinnamon over the sugar.
- Place the apple halves rounded side down on top of the sugar. You can slice some of the halves in half in order to fill in any gaps and make a pretty design. The bottom will become the top, so make it pretty!
- Place the puff pastry over the top of the apples and tuck the pastry underneath the apple halves around the entire edge of the pan. Prick the pastry all over with a fork to allow steam to escape.
- Place the pan on the stove over high heat till you can see the sugar syrup bubbling at the bottom of the pan, then turn to medium high and cook for 15 minutes,
- After 15 minutes, turn off the heat and spoon some of the syrup from the edges of the pan over the top of the puff pastry. The dough will have puffed up quite a bit, so when you spoon the syrup over the pastry, press down on the dough to let the steam escape. Spread the syrup evenly over the entire top of the puff pastry so that it will crisp nicely in the oven.
- Place the skillet into the oven and bake until the pastry is a deep golden colour, about 20-25 minutes. Leave to cool for 5 minutes before turning over on a plate.
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