Tarte Tartin

**Update** Tried it again and it worked perfectly with granny smith apples and making sure that I didn’t burn the caramel – hurrah !  A good dollop of heavy cream while the tart is still hot really works.

Original post below:

We’ve been following Gordon Ramsay’s F Word where the series was focused on finding Britain’s best local restaurant.  One of the finalists was the Pheasant at Keyston and their dessert was a tarte tartin.  It looked so delicious I thought I’d give it a go myself.

With no Braeburn apples available at my supermarket, I went looking for granny smith apples, but my supermarket had none of them either so I chanced it with red delicious apples.  Mistake #1.

 

Toffee apples

Mistake #2 was not watching over my sugar caramelising like a hawk.  You are meant to leave it in the pot to simmer and bubble away without stirring.  It was colourless for so long that I went away from the stove for a few minutes, and when I went back to it, the caramel had gone just the wrong shade of brown.  I tipped my apples in and once a little cooler, I tasted an apple and it had the distinct taste of burnt sugar.  Boo.

I’ll try it again when they have granny smith apples in the supermarket, and will share a picture of the finished tarte but in the meantime here’s the recipe.

Ingredients (for two greedy people)

1. 2-3 Braeburn or granny smith apples
2. 1 tbs lemon juice
3. 100g sugar
4. 15g butter, cubed
5. 1 sheet puff pastry
6. Thick cream or ice-cream, to serve

Method

1. Peel and core the apples and cut into six slices.  Place in a large bowl and toss in the lemon juice to stop them browning.  Don’t try this with other red apples as they will lose their bite and go mushy ones they cook
2. Preheat oven to 190C
3. Place the sugar and 2 tbs water in an oven-proof frying pan over low heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar, then increase the heat to medium and cook for about five minutes without stirring until the sugar caramelises and is a light brown colour.  STAY WITH YOUR CARAMEL, it goes from colourless to burnt very quickly
4. Add the butter and apples, coating the apples in the caramel and arrange nicely (they will be on top of the tarte once served). Be careful don’t touch the caramel because it’s hot
5. Place the pastry over the apples, tucking any excess under the apples, like a blanket
6. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes until the pastry is cooked and golden brown
7. Remove from oven and allow to rest in the pan for 10 minutes
8. Carefully turn the tarte upside down onto a large plate
9. Serve warm with cream or ice-cream