Deconstructed Tarte Tatin

The Tarte Tatin is a venerable dish from French Cuisine.  It combines the best of sweet and sour with a glorious mix of rich pastry, very tart green apples and loads of sugar.

In this version I was wanting to try the Never Fail Flaky Pastry I talked about earlier.  Since I just could not bring myself to make the pastry for no reason, I needed something to go with it.  And since I wanted to bake the pastry on its own, I needed to deconstruct something.  And since when I thought about rich and golden flaky pastry as a dessert I straight away though of apple pie and from there it was only a short step to this dish.

I will make a few apologies for this dish.  First I only had my cell phone camera and as you will see I had already started eating when I remembered.  A quick snap under poor lighting is all you will get until I can take another one that looks all flash and restaurant-like. 

Secondly I wanted to see what would happen if I did not glaze the pastry with milk as I would normally have done halfway through the cooking process.

Either way the pastry was rich and flaky and never again will I be purchasing flaky pastry.

Ingredients - serves 4
1 batch of Never Fail Flaky Pastry
2 cups brown sugar
100 grams butter, diced
4 Granny Smith Apples


Cream and ice cream to serve.

Method

Peel, core and quarter the apples.  Dice each quarter into nine. Reserve.

In a wide frying pan, add the butter and sugar and stir over a high heat until the butter has melted and the sugar is starting to bubble.  If the sugar goes all gritty and is not starting to loosen up, and a knob of butter and stir in.

Allow to bubble for a couple of minutes, all the time stirring, then add the diced apple.  The sugar will become thin with the juice that comes out of the apple.  Continue cooking for five minutes or until the apple has softenened but is still holding its shape.

For the pastry, roll out to about 3mm in thickness then cut into triangles and bake for around 15-20 minutes in a 200 deg C oven or until starting to become golden and flaky.  Remove from the oven and with a pastry brush, glaze with cold milk.  Return to the oven for until really golden brown.

Serve with cream and ice cream.