Shivani Makes Tarte Tatin (That Means "Super Tasty Apple Stuff" In French)

Fall is my favorite season. The changing leaves, the pumpkin spice lattes, the cool air, and the ability to wear my favorite summer dress with my favorite tights fill me with a sense of contentment and awesomeness. However, three of the four things I mentioned are not happening for me in Miami. In fact, the perpetual summer vibe of the place makes it nigh impossible to sip on a pumpkin spice latte without sweating like Chelsea Dagger, which knocks my four favorite fall things count to zero. From what I gather from my little bro’s constant moaning, home is a lot different. Apparently fall passed over Colorado completely and it’s already snowing. Lucky for me, food is an excellent way to capture the moods and memories of my favorite fall things. This week’s recipe is an easy version of tarte tatin, a French dish that uses apples, caramel and pastry to make someone very, very fat in the most efficient and delicious way possible.

Traditional tarte tatin involves making caramel in a cast-iron skillet on a stove and cooking the apples with the caramel, making a pastry crust, laying it over the apples and caramel and baking the entire thing (skillet included) until the pastry is crusty. This method is tedious and best left to people who actually know what they are doing in a kitchen (i.e. someone who is not me) in order to avoid things like burning the caramel, disintegrating the apples, and incinerating the pastry.

Tarte Tatin

Serves 6

Ingredients

8 medium granny smith apples, peeled, cored and quartered

1-cup sugar

¼ cup unsalted butter, melted

1 sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed

½ tsp. cinnamon

Directions

1. Mix sugar and melted butter together, thoroughly and press into an 8” round pan.
2. Place apples on their sides in concentric circles over the sugar and butter mixture. Pack them closely together
3. Sprinkle and dust cinnamon over the apples.
4. Bake at 425°F for 1 hour or until apples have a softness about them and the caramel is amber in color. If the apples begin to burn before this cover the pan with aluminum foil two layers thick.
5. As the apples bake unroll the pastry dough and cut into a circle with a 9 ½” diameter. Poke several holes in the pastry dough
6. Remove the apples and caramel from the oven and drape the pastry dough over the mixture, tucking the edges into the apples.
7. Bake the entire thing for another 20 min.
8. Remove from the oven and let cool until it can be handled comfortably but still nice and warm.
9. Serve while it is still nice and warm because it is best that way.

YUM. We'd love a piece of this! Or 8 pieces. We're not picky. What's your favorite fall treat?

Related post: Cooking with Shivani