Home
Catering
Recipes
Classes
Articles
Individual Tarte Tatin - French Upside Down Apple Tart
This dessert can be done by anyone - including people who are strangers to the kitchen.
Ingredients for 4 individual tarts
- ½ stick butter (2oz)
- ¼ c maple syrup
- ¼ c packed light brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon bourbon or apple brandy - Calvados
-
4-6 Gala, Braeburn or Fuji apples, peeled, cored, halved and fairly thinly
sliced or a mix of your favorite apples for baking.
I find Granny Smith apples need more sugar than could be added to an individual small bowl. It really doesn't matter how perfectly you cut the apples. It will look nicer if the slices in the bottom of the bowl are nicely arranged since you will see this layer when you turn the tart out, but it won't affect the taste. Choose greener Gala apples etc as redder Gala can be mushy. - 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- ½ of 17 oz packet of Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry Sheets - packet contains 2 sheets, thaw according to packet instructions.
Method
1. Preheat oven to 400°.
2. In a 1qt pan heat butter, sugar and maple syrup until butter melts. Increase heat to medium and 'cook' syrup mix for about 3 minutes until it looks bubbly and thicker. Cool slightly (so glass or ceramic doesn't crack from thermal shock) and then pour half the quantity into base of 4 x 1½ cup custard cups or small cereal bowls. Note, not loose bottomed bowls etc or you will lose all the tasty syrup. Add bourbon to remaining sauce and retain.
3. Divide apples between bowls and sprinkle with mix of sugar and cinnamon. You do need the equivalent of one apple per portion otherwise it's really not an apple tart.
4. Sprinkle additional sugar lightly on chopping board so pastry doesn't stick, unfold pastry on top of sugar, sprinkle with more sugar and gently roll just to remove fold lines, not to make pastry thinner. Find a saucer, plastic lid etc that fits the width of the cereal bowl or custard cup and cut out four circles using saucer as guide. I find a lid from a 2lb tub of Ricotta fits the custard cups perfectly.
5. Use a fork to mark holes in the surface of the pastry in several places to stop pastry puffing into giant domes.
6. Lift each circle on top of each dish of apples and just lay it there. There is no need to do anything else with pastry.
7. Place all bowls on one baking tray and bake in preheated 400° oven for about 20 minutes until pastry is well risen and light golden brown all over. It's fine for the pastry to look misshapen since it will be turned out, again it doesn't affect the taste. The apples should be tender if a knife is inserted down through the pastry.
8. Remove from oven, cool for about 10 minutes and then invert onto individual serving plates. Serve drizzled with the reheated sauce containing bourbon and whipped cream or ice cream.
Oonagh Williams, proprietor of Royal Temptations, has a Culinary Arts degree, offers catering from 6-60 people, teaches a variety of classes in International Cooking, and makes regular appearances on WMUR ABC Channel 9's Cooks' Corner. You can contact Oonagh at 603-424-6412.