D&N's fabulous tarte tatin
D&N's fabulous tarte tatin
Dominique shares his secrets with us:
I don’t have an actual recipe for the tarte, this is mostly « feeling ».
Essentially, the crust is from http://www.tarte-tatin.info/
For the apples, I usually use any kind of apple that doesn’t just melt when cooking. For this tarte, I used Cortlands. I peel them, cut them in 1/8 (or 1/16 if they are huge) and place them in a frying pan with butter, sugar and vanilla flavoured sugar (or a bit of vanilla extract). I cook them until they get somewhat soft (but not apple sauce !) and lightly colored (they will get orange-ish at best, they won’t get brown as in the picture, this color come from the caramel I add later). Let them cool and rest.
Once the apples are cook, I make some caramel separately. It seems that people freak out with caramel, but it is kind of easy. What I do is thatIi measure roughly 1/2 or 2/3 or a cup of sugar (i used a full cup for the 2 tartes, and it was *just* enough), put it in a pan with a bit of water I’d say 1/8 cup, it doesn’t really make a difference if you put more, just takes longer) mix it, and cook at max power until it boils, then just reduce the heat a tiny bit (like on 7-8 instead of max).
What matters is that you do not touch it at all while cooking, don’t put a spoon or anything in it, just let it boil and stay nearby! At some point, some color will appear (usually on the sides first) and this is when it will go quickly ! You can move the pan a bit to get a more uniform color, wait for it to get completely light brown/reddish and drop in roughly the same quantity of water you put initially (~1/8 cup) with a bit of filtered lemon juice (like a quarter lemon juice). Be careful because it will be *violent* (water + way above 100 C caramel will just « explode »), so when i say drop, it is quite literally true because i already burnt myself with the water projections trying to spill it smoothly ! This step is called « uncook » the caramel, and it allows you to keep it liquid (if you don’t do that, it will get very hard quickly). Boil it until it gets a bit « thicker » and keep in mind that hot, it will look way more liquid that cool. So not long after, stop cooking it by putting the pan in cold water (you’ll see that the caramel will thicken quite a bit when cooling down). If you find out it is not thick enough, you can boil it more.
Finally, in a generously buttered dish, quickly put the caramel before it gets too thick, then the cooked apples and then the crust. Make sure you make the crust as hermetic as you can. Make some holes in the crust with a fork. Put it in the oven at 400 just long enough for the crust to be cooked (should not take long, like 20 minutes or so, you can tap it to check).
The last but most dangerous part if to turn it upside down just out of the oven (because otherwise, it will just stick badly). I put a plate the same size of the dish, and quickly turn it upside down. If you’re lucky and put enough butter and had a not too thick caramel, it should not stick, or at least not much (you can fiddle a bit to get the few apples that got stuck
I don’t have an actual recipe for the tarte, this is mostly « feeling ».
Essentially, the crust is from http://www.tarte-tatin.info/
For the apples, I usually use any kind of apple that doesn’t just melt when cooking. For this tarte, I used Cortlands. I peel them, cut them in 1/8 (or 1/16 if they are huge) and place them in a frying pan with butter, sugar and vanilla flavoured sugar (or a bit of vanilla extract). I cook them until they get somewhat soft (but not apple sauce !) and lightly colored (they will get orange-ish at best, they won’t get brown as in the picture, this color come from the caramel I add later). Let them cool and rest.
Once the apples are cook, I make some caramel separately. It seems that people freak out with caramel, but it is kind of easy. What I do is thatIi measure roughly 1/2 or 2/3 or a cup of sugar (i used a full cup for the 2 tartes, and it was *just* enough), put it in a pan with a bit of water I’d say 1/8 cup, it doesn’t really make a difference if you put more, just takes longer) mix it, and cook at max power until it boils, then just reduce the heat a tiny bit (like on 7-8 instead of max).
What matters is that you do not touch it at all while cooking, don’t put a spoon or anything in it, just let it boil and stay nearby! At some point, some color will appear (usually on the sides first) and this is when it will go quickly ! You can move the pan a bit to get a more uniform color, wait for it to get completely light brown/reddish and drop in roughly the same quantity of water you put initially (~1/8 cup) with a bit of filtered lemon juice (like a quarter lemon juice). Be careful because it will be *violent* (water + way above 100 C caramel will just « explode »), so when i say drop, it is quite literally true because i already burnt myself with the water projections trying to spill it smoothly ! This step is called « uncook » the caramel, and it allows you to keep it liquid (if you don’t do that, it will get very hard quickly). Boil it until it gets a bit « thicker » and keep in mind that hot, it will look way more liquid that cool. So not long after, stop cooking it by putting the pan in cold water (you’ll see that the caramel will thicken quite a bit when cooling down). If you find out it is not thick enough, you can boil it more.
Finally, in a generously buttered dish, quickly put the caramel before it gets too thick, then the cooked apples and then the crust. Make sure you make the crust as hermetic as you can. Make some holes in the crust with a fork. Put it in the oven at 400 just long enough for the crust to be cooked (should not take long, like 20 minutes or so, you can tap it to check).
The last but most dangerous part if to turn it upside down just out of the oven (because otherwise, it will just stick badly). I put a plate the same size of the dish, and quickly turn it upside down. If you’re lucky and put enough butter and had a not too thick caramel, it should not stick, or at least not much (you can fiddle a bit to get the few apples that got stuck
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