French Recipes: Tarte tatin ( upside-down cake)

Tarte Tatin ( upside-down cake)

The tarte Tatin is an upside-down cake in which the fruit (usually apples) are caramelized in butter and sugar before the cake is baked.
The tarte tatin was actualy created by accident in the year 1880 at a hotel in the south of Paris.
The story tells us how two sisters from the Tatin family were cooking an apple pie and baked the apples with sugar and butter before with the intention of adding them as a pie filling but as one of the sister smelled burning she tryed to safe the pie by adding the pastery on top, taking of the heat and putting in the offen to cook the pastery. Little did she know she had just created our now well known Tarte Tatin.
The tartin can be topped with any sort of fruit like apple, pear, plum, aprikot etc.
I will give you the recipe for the traditional Apple tarte tatin but you can use any fruit you like and follow the same steps.

Serves: 6 slices

Time:

Ingredients:

-7 medium apples: 4 Cox, 3 Granny Smith
- 200 grams of white sugar
- 50 grams of butter
- 175 grams of ready-made shortcrust pastry
OR- 225 grams of plain flour
- 2 tablespoons of caster sugar
- 120 grams of cold butter
- 1 medium egg, beaten





Step 1:

Peel, halve and core the apples, then put in the fridge, uncovered, for 24 hours.


Step 2:


Put the sugar into a 20cm heavy-based ovenproof frying pan along with 50ml water and leave to soak for a couple of minutes, then cook over a medium heat until golden and fudgy. Take off the heat and stir in the butter, and a pinch of salt, until well combined, then carefully arrange the apples in the pan, round-side down, bearing in mind the caramel will be very hot, and put back on the heat – you may need to cut some of the apples into smaller pieces to fill in the gaps. Cook for 5 minutes, then take off the heat and allow to cool completely.


Step 3:


If making the pastry, sift the flour into a large mixing bowl and add the sugar and a pinch of salt. Grate in the butter, then rub together until it is coarse crumbs.


Step 4:


Mix the egg with 2 tsp cold water and sprinkle over the mixture. Mix together into a soft but not sticky dough, adding more water (if required) very gradually. Shape into a ball, and then cover with clingfilm and refrigerate for at least 20 minutes before rolling out.


Step 5:

Pre-heat the oven to 200C. Roll out the past to 5mm thick, and cut out a circle slightly larger than your pan.
Put back into the fridge to rest.


Step 6:

Put the pastry on top of the pan and tuck in the edges around the fruit. Bake for about 30 minutes until the pastry is golden, then remove from the oven. Allow to cool for 5 minutes, then place a plate, slightly larger than the pan, on top and then, very carefully, using oven gloves, invert the tart on to the plate.
Best served warm, with crème fraîche or whipping cream.

Now the French would say " Bon Appetit " which means;

                                      
                                                                 " Enjoy your meal"


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