Did you watch Bake Off this week? It was pastry week and the ‘signature bake’ was to create a savoury tarte tatin. So I used that as a bit of inspiration and decided to make a toffee apple tarte tatin. Here’s how it ‘panned’ out…
I’ve been spending the past few weeks making use of all the ripening fruit from our garden; plums, damsons and now apples. We don’t know the type of apple this is – we think it’s an ‘eater’ rather than a ‘cooker’, although it’s a bit on the tart side.
I was going to make a ‘plain’ apple tarte tatin, but I fancied a bit of extra bit of caramelisation. Sweet, gooey, sticky and chewy.
As a tarte tatin is an ‘upside-down’ cake, you want to lay the fruit on the base of the pan in an attractive pattern.
I could have done with making a little bit more pastry. I felt like I was stretching it across the top to thinly. But hey, it’s a rustic tart, a couple of cracks didn’t detract from the splendid taste and flavour.
Slice & serve with thick cream or vanilla ice cream. We’ve really been enjoying all our recent autumnal desserts; warming, hearty, filling and delicious; what will next week bring?
Click here to save the recipe to Pinterest!
- 110g/4oz plain flour
- 50g/2oz butter, cubed (room temperature)
- pinch of salt
- 25g butter
- 25g Demerara sugar
- 1tbsp golden syrup
- ½tsp ground cinnamon
- 2 large or 3 medium apples, cored, peeled and sliced into segments
- Pre-heat your oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas mark 4
- Sift the flour and salt together into a medium-sized mixing bowl
- Using your fingertips, lightly and gently rub the cubes of butter into the flour. When the mixture looks uniformly crumbly, sprinkle a tablespoon of cold water evenly over the top
- Using a round-bladed knife, repeatedly cut through the mixture, which will begin to form larger lumps. Bring the mixture together with your hands to form a smooth ball of dough.
- Cool the ball of pastry, in a ziplock bag, in the fridge for half an hour
- In a heavy-bottomed, cast iron skillet pan, melt the butter, sugar and golden syrup. Cook for a couple of minutes, stirring occasionally
- Sprinkle in the cinnamon and stir to combine
- Arrange the apple segments into an attractive pattern on top of the toffee mixture in the skillet pan
- Roll out the pastry into a 1cm thick round, with a slightly larger diameter than your skillet
- Cover the apples with the pastry, gently pressing it down and tucking it down the sides
- Cook for 30-40 minutes or until the pastry begins to brown
- Cool for a couple of minutes and loosen the edges with a sharp knife if necessary
- Flip over, apple-side-up, on to a serving plate