04 October 2006

Goody good!


Tarte Tatin is one of my favourite desert: always a hit, always a save soirée! You just need apples, butter, flour, sugar and egg and the trick is done…
Tatin sisters invented it in the end of 19th century by accident, cooking some apple for too long, so the sugar did caramelize, and placing the pastry OVER them, and not under…
This upside down desert is perfect still warn on its own, but even with a scoop or two of vanilla ice cream and/or a scoop or two of crème fraîche, the French thick sour cream.
As you can imagine, it is not the lightest desert of all!!!
This recipe is from one of my favourite cook books, Pâtisserie maison, by Florence Edelmann.

Serves 8

6 to 8 cooking apples, firm and not too watery

For the pastry
130 g of butter, soft
1 egg
1 pinch of salt
230 g of flour
70 g of caster sugar, but better with confectionary sugar

For the caramel
50 g of slightly salted butter
150 g of caster sugar

Make the pastry. Place the diced soft butter in a bowl and begin to whisk it to obtain a thick paste. Beat the egg with a fork and pass it through a sieve in a glass with 30 ml of cold salted water.
Add it to the butter, whisking constantly, then add part of the flour sieved with the sugar and continue to beat. Add all the flour and sugar and make a ball. Leave it to rest in the fridge for at least one hour.
In the mean while,. Make the caramel with the sugar and 4 spoons of water.
Put the butter in a cake mould of 25 cm and pour over it the caramel.
Peel and clean all the apples and cut them in eighth, and dispose them over the caramel.
Roll the pastry in a round larger than the cake mould, place it over the apples and fold over the exciding pastry, to make a edge.

Cook in a preheated oven (170° C) for 40 minutes.
When the pastry is golden, take it out, let cool for few minutes, then turn upside down in a serving dish. If the apple made to much liquid, turn it in another cake mould, larger, discard the exceeding liquid and then move the cake to the serving dish.

Serve still warm with vanilla ice cream and/or crème fraîche.

In Italian, please