Salted Caramel Tarte Tatin

I’m doing dessert this Xmas for the family and I wanted to try something I had never made before and non-traditional. This recipe is courtesy of delicious magazine – the October issue claiming that it’s the best pudding in the world caught my eye. Normally I am not a dessert person, preferring options like cheese to end a meal, but the picture on the front cover made me salivate and I wanted to have a go. Often with dessert recipes I find they never turn out as well as I would hope for but this one worked and I am going to practice making it a few more times to get it absolutely perfect by December!

So here’s what you need:

8 Braeburn apples – peeled, cored and cut in half

200g of golden caster sugar

50g of unsalted butter

½ tsp of flaky sea salt

375 block all-butter puff pastry

Plain flour for dusting

You also need a flat based [about 20cm wide] oven proof frying pan with a handle

The recipe called for all butter puff pastry but I couldn’t find it in the supermarket so I got some puff pastry mix that had to be kneaded with water, folded and rolled out on a clean surface dusted with flour. I managed to follow the instructions and make the pastry but I will try the all butter puff pastry next time. I also only had caster sugar in the house so it wasn’t as golden as it could have been!

So here’s what you do:

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C [fan]

Put the sugar in the pan on a low heat with a couple of tablespoons of water and stir to dissolve

Then put the heat up and bubble for 5 minutes and watch it like a hawk as it will turn golden quite quickly – swirl the pan around but don’t stir. Be very careful as the sugar is extremely hot like lava!

Go as dark as you can with the caramel without burning the sugar, before you take it off the heat

Pop the butter in and let it fizzle and melt then sprinkle over the salt

Place the apples cut side up in the pan snugly and fill in any gaps with any extra bits of apple you have

Place the pan back on the heat on low for another 5 minutes

Then remove it from the heat and allow the apples to cool completely

Meanwhile make the pastry or roll it out

Gently place over the pan and trim off the excess before tucking in the edges

Pop it in the oven for 30min and check to see if the crust have risen and turned golden

Rest the pan but drain off the excess liquid carefully into a small pan

Reduce the syrup down to a sticky consistency

Very carefully place a plate over the pan and invert over the sink away from you

Once the tart is turned out, dribble over the syrup and allow to rest

I think my tart turned out pretty similar to the picture in the magazine - it certainly tasted fantastic and was gone within minutes. I will be tweaking the recipe every time I practice - maybe with cinnamon next time and caramelising everything a bit more!