Tarte Tatin
There are apple windfalls all along the roads and highways at this time of the year.
I am not sure that they are windfalls as we certainly help the apples to fall off the trees. We have our favourite trees that we raid yearly. Some do taste better than others. The best bonus is that they are free! There is skill knowing when they are ripe and when to beat the cockatoos and more importantly you need to get there before your neighbours and friends or do it together as a family outing with friends – which is my preferred option as it usually leads to an enjoyable picnic and the joys of shared bounty. A great asset is to have friends who travel around these quiet country roads on bicycles – there are more than a few of these enthusiasts here in Collector, and they bring me back reports of great finds of apple trees, and further, reports on their ripeness and readiness for picking. They are great apple tree scouts.
Children can have great fun with an old fashioned gadget, which peels, cores and slices the apple into a spiral. When peeled with this gadget it is a perfect way to make baked apples. It solves the disappointment of exploded baked apples, and the kind of thing that keeps the children amused for more than one apple’s worth – so you can really put them to work! Fortunately, my cycling friends have loaded me up this year, and there is plenty of peeling, coring and slicing to be done, and my grand-children have been kept amused (and productive!) for a good while this season.
You can buy a D-line apple peeler for around $25 to $30 from most kitchen supply shops, or try looking them up on the internet.
The recipe below for Tarte Tatin always impressive as it comes out of the oven and it is not hard to master. This is a “showy” dessert, and it is something I like to teach boys to make if they want to create the wow factor for not much effort. As an aside, and merely as an observation lest I get in trouble from both men and women alike in making such a generalisation, I do note that in my experience of men and any interest they show in the kitchen is that when they do get involved, their prime motivation is to create some kind of marvel without much effort. So to encourage such adventures even further, I usually recommend the men take a short cut and use frozen bought butter puff pastry. Perhaps then the children could peel the apples with the machine and make it a family affair to impress the mother!
Tarte Tatin
Upside down caramelised apple tart:
175 g unsalted butter
400 g sugar
2.8 kg firm apples, such as Golden Delicious
crème fraiche or double cream (for serving)
For the Pate brisee
200 g flour
100 g unsalted butter
1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons sugar
½ teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons cold water, or more if needed
30 cm diameter heavy non-stick frying pan
1 - Melt the butter in the pan and sprinkle with the sugar.
Peel, half and core the apples. Arrange the halves, cored side up, in concentric circles on top of the sugar; so they fill the pan completely and are snugly packed. Cook the apples on top of the stove until a deep golden caramel is formed after around 15-20 minutes. Note that the apples makes juice, which must evaporate before it caramelises.
2 - Meanwhile, heat the oven to 220C. Make the pate brisee dough and chill. When the apples are cooked, let them cool slightly. Roll out the dough to a circle slightly larger than the diameter of the pan. Set the dough on the apples so that they are completely covered, tucking the pastry in at the edges. Work fast here so the dough does not soften from the heat of the apples. Bake until the pastry is crisp and brown after around 20-30 minutes. Let the tart cool in the pan. Tarte Tatin can be prepared up to 8 hours ahead and refrigerated.
3 Not more than an hour before serving, if necessary, warm the tart on top of the stove. Turn out on a tray or a large plate. Be careful to avoid any splashing juice. If any apple sticks to the bottom of the pan, transfer it to the top of the tart with a spatula. Serve the tart warm, with crème fraiche or double cream.
This recipe is from Ann Willan’s book ’Real Food‘ where her advice is to note:
’when this tart is good it is very good, but when the apples fall part before they caramelise, it is a disaster. Much depends on the type of apple: Golden Delicious is the standard recommendation.’