TARTE TATIN

An apple tart, cooked upside-down

The year is about 1898. Two sisters are rushing around welcoming clients and preparing a meal for a group of guests at their hotel in Sologne, France. In her haste, one of them realizes that she forgot to prepare a dessert. She spots some apples that have already been peeled, and with mad speed she throws them into a skillet with butter and sugar and tosses it into the oven.

She continues the service while the scent of butter and apples begins to fill the kitchen. She suddenly realizes that there is no crust! What was this dessert to be? Just gooey apples? In lack of a better plan, she covers the apples with pastry dough and puts the dish back in the oven. But when she takes it out again, the visual aspect is not particularly appealing. 

 

So she flips it over onto a plate to discover gooey apple caramel delight. To everyone’s surprise, the accidental tart is a big hit and soon becomes the specialty of the house. The Tatin sisters go down in history and are even cited in the first edition of the Guide Michelin in 1900.

Goes to show that sometimes mistakes can turn into delicious surprises.

The Hotel Tatin is still operating today

I’ve made many a tarte Tatin, but it is a recipe from the American Saveur magazine that has been the most moving. Crisp caramel aromas pierce the air around you when you bite into a slice, making your eyes tear up with joy. If you like deep dark caramel this is a tart for you.

recipe for tarte tatin from Saveur Magazine

I followed this recipe to a tee, except for the placement of the apples. I used fuji apples and rather than placing them on their sides, I placed them on their backs, still very tightly packed. I find the finished tart prettier when the rounded part of the apple is visible rather than the sliced edges.

You can go to the original recipe here.

For the pastry:
1 1/2 cups flour
6 tbsp. confectioners’ sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
10 tbsp. butter, cut into small pieces
1 egg, lightly beaten

For the apples:
8 granny smith apples
12 tbsp. butter, cut into small pieces
1 cup sugar

1. For the pastry: Sift together flour, sugar, and salt into a large mixing bowl. Use a pastry cutter or two knives to work butter into flour until it resembles coarse meal. Stir in egg with a fork until dough just begins to hold together. Press dough into a rough ball, then transfer to a lightly floured surface. Knead dough a few times, gather into a ball, then flatten slightly to make a disk. Wrap disk in plastic and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

2. For the apples: Preheat oven to 375°. Peel, quarter, and core apples. Melt butter in a 10″ cast-iron skillet over medium heat, then remove from heat and sprinkle evenly with sugar. Tightly pack apples around inside edge of skillet, standing upright on their sides, nestled against one another. Arrange remaining apples in similar position in center of skillet. (Apples will shrink as they cook.) Return to high heat and cook until butter and sugar caramelize to a rich brown, about 15 minutes. Remove from heat, then carefully turn apples over to uncooked side with a fork, taking care not to burn your fingers. Return to heat and cook 5–8 minutes longer. Remove from heat.

3. Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface into a 12″ circle. Drape pastry over apples and skillet, then tuck overhanging dough between apples and inside wall of skillet. Bake in oven until pastry is golden, 20–30 minutes. Allow tart to cool for 15 minutes, then loosen edges with a knife. Place a platter on top of skillet and invert quickly and carefully. Serve warm.

GREEN FIG TART & ICE CREAM

A plump green fig, perfectly ripe

I have a lovely neighbor.  She’s an elderly Spanish lady called Angel.  Deliciously sweet green figs grow in her brother’s garden, and she gives us a basketful about once a week. They are perfectly ripe, and so I must eat them up or surrender them to fruit flies.

The first week or two, I ate most of them, loosing a few.  The next week I made little fig cakes. (They were supposed to be financiers, but I forgot to add the powdered almond.) Still delicious, but no photos to show for it.  Next I made ice cream. Yes! Cream and figs!  And yesterday, the perfect little tart. So simple, yet absolutely dainty.  Served together, this match will brighten any late summer dessert course. Use any fresh figs that you can get your hands on. There are many varieties.

Feasting on fig ice cream with a fig tart

No need for eggs in this ice cream.  Just good old heavy cream.  The basic recipe is from David Lebovitz, as I discoverd on the site Vanilla Garlic.  I didn’t follow to the tee, omitting the water and adding the sugar earlier so as not to cook the figs for too long. I wanted them to keep that fresh taste rather then become jam.

A delicious pâte sucrée, with caramelized fig juice

A good pastry crust isn’t the easiest thing to come by.  The recipes are simple, yet the finish can be so different from one recipe to another.  My favorite crust in recent times is from Canadian pastry chef Regan Daley.  You can see in my poorly lit photo (I do apologize for that by the way,) that this crust has texture.  One of its greatest qualities: it crumbles in your mouth, not in your hand.

Try these two very simple recipes together. Régalez-vous!

recipe for Fig Ice Cream

to be made a day in advance

2 lbs fresh figs (about 20)
1/2 cup of water if your figs are a little dehydrated

1 lemon, organic and unwaxed
3/4 cup of sugar
1 cup of heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon of freshly squeezed, lemon juice, or more to taste

…

Remove the stems from the figs, chop each fig into 8 pieces. Put the figs in a medium, suacepan with the water, and zest the lemon directly into the saucepan. Add the sugar. Cover and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for about 8-1o minutes until the figs are tender and the mixture has a jam-like consistency.  I used a soup mixer to slightly blend. You can put in a blender and pulse a few times if you would like.

Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature. Blend together with the cream and lemon juice, chill in the fridge and then put in your ice cream maker per the manufacturer’s instructions.  If you want you ice cream to be more like what we buy from the store, allow it to freeze in the freezer overnight before digging in.

recipe for the sweet pastry crust (pâte sucrée) from Regan Daley:

Serve warm right away with a scoop of fig ice cream or cold the next day.

to make a few hours or a day in advance

1 1/4 cups flour

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/4 tsp salt

8 tbs unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small pieces

2 large egg yolks, lightly beaten

…

You can do this by hand using a pastry blender, but I find that the food processor method is quicker and gives great results.

Combine the flour, sugar, and salit in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Pulse several times to blend the dry ingredients. Add the bits of cold butter and pulse until the largest pieces of the mixture are about the size of fat peas. Add the egg yolks and pulse 2 or 3 times, just until the mixture looks moist and crumbly and comes together in a clump when you squeeze it.

Butter a 10 or 11 inch tart pan with a removable bottom and dust your fingers with flour. Press the dough evenly over the bottom of the pan. (I didn’t press up the sides as I made this tart a little flat. The effect was very nice.) Don’t try to roll out this dough!  We’re talking sticky mess. Just press it into the tart pan.

Refrigerate until ready to use.

recipe for fig tart:

about 10 figs

about 1/4 cup heavy cream or double cream

about 2 or 3 tbs of sugar for sprinkling

your sweet pastry crust

some honey

…

Preheat oven to 350° F or 180°C

Poke the crust many times with a fork.

Slice the figs into 6 parts and distribute evenly over the crust.

Pour the heavy cream evenly over the figs and sprinkle with sugar. To be honest, I don’t measure here. So if you would like, just add as much cream as your heart desires and sprinkle with a handful of sugar.  Just be careful not to add so much cream that it leaks from your tart pan.

Bake for about 40 minutes, making sure that the crust is a nice caramel color, but not burned.

While still warm, drizzle some honey over the figs.

Bon appétît!

ALMOND HAZELNUT HOLIDAY PIE

A new take on an American classic – Pecan Pie looses to the pecans!  And don’t be mislead by that buttery crust – there is no gluten and no dairy!

Cooking for my dessert-loving no-nonsense husband and my dessert-loving no-substitutions  father has been a challenge recently because I’m cooking also for my dessert-loving mother who can’t digest wheat or dairy.  Such a challenge has opened a door to the discovery of new ingredients, or simply, different ways to use well-known ingredients.

This pie or tart crust recipe is much like a pâte sablée or shortcrust pastry.  It it buttery (coconut buttery) and crumbly, just as a good crust should be.  I like it as much as the best wheat flour and butter pastry dough I have tasted.

I am not very snobbish about finding recipes.  Good ideas can come from almost anywhere, even the lowly product label. The basic recipe for the filling of the pie came from the label of the “Golden Eagle Syrup” found deep in my parent’s cupboard.  Golden Eagle Syrup is a product from Alabama, a blend of corn syrup, cane sugar syrup, cane molasses, and pure honey. If you can’t find it, use half corn syrup and half honey.

A forkfull has been known to please even the most anti-gluten-free of palates.

This gluten-free piece of goodness is easy as a slice of pie, but tastes like you have been hovering over a copper saucepan watching sugar slowly caramelize all afternoon. Roasted almonds and hazelnuts with dark chocolate bits in caramel fill each bite.

Recipe for Almond Hazelnut Holiday Pie:

Note: You can use a regular crust recipe if you prefer. Try a pâte brisée. Otherwise this gluten-free crust is great as well.

For the gluten-free crust:

150 g cornstarch (preferably from non-gmo corn)

50 g corn or rice flour (ditto)

50 g powdered sugar

large pinch of salt

150 g coconut butter (coconut oil) which is a white solid

3-4 tablespoons cold water

1 egg

a pastry dough cutter (because coconut butter melts too quickly if you use your fingers)

…

The process is slightly different from traditional shortcrust pastry in that you really can’t mix with your hands in the beginning, and you roll out the dough before chilling it.

Mix together the cornstarch, corn flour, powdered sugar and salt.  Cut the coconut butter into small pieces and add to the flour. Using the pastry cutter, mix it with the flour using a chopping motion until all the flour is mixed with the coconut butter, but not so much that the coconut butter is completely mixed. The dough should have a sandy consitency.

Add the cold water and an egg. Mix together using your hands, just until the dough looks uniform.

Roll out and press into a tart pan, making nice edges. Chill.

…

For the almond hazelnut filling:

3 eggs

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup Golden Eagle Syrup (or your own mixture of honey and corn syrup)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons melted coconut butter

1 cup lightly roasted almonds

1 cup lightly roasted hazelnuts

1 cup coarsly chopped dark good-quality chocolate

…

To roast your almonds and hazelnuts if they are raw, place on a cookie sheet and cook for 8 to 10 minutes at 350°F or 180°C. They should just start to take on color in the center. Allow to cool.

Pre-cook the pie crust in the lower part of the oven for about 10 minutes at 360°F or 190°C. Use baking beans if you have them, or else simply flatten the crust before filling if air bubbles pop up.

Lightly beat the eggs. Add the sugar, syrup, salt, and melted coconut butter. Don’t beat too much, or you will add too much air and your pie will rise and fall like a soufflé!

Spread the nuts and chocolate into the slightly pre-cooked pie crust and pour the filling over them. Bake for about 45 minutes at 350°F (180°C).

Allow to cool before serving. This pie cuts best if it is chilled before slicing.

A rich winter dessert to finish off a festive or lighter meal!

LAZY CHOCOLATE CHANTILLY TART

Easy to make chocolate whipped-cream tartlets are quickly gobbled up

Jet-lagged and worn out from a summer of planes, trains, and automobiles, there was one thing on my mind the other day… le chocolat. Sweet and dark.  Chocolate whipped-cream (chantilly) is one of the most simple desserts to make, and finishes much like a chocolate mousse. You can use it simply to decorate or cover a cake, or you can do as I did: pipe little rosaces onto pre-cooked sugar pastry shells, take a picture, and gobble them up!

Recipe for chocolate whipped-cream (chantilly):

cold heavy whipping cream

your favorite best-quality chocolate (I used dark chocolate at 70%)

…

Refrigerate a glass or metal mixing bowl.

Melt the chocolate over a double boiler until just melted. Allow to cool a little.

Using an electric beater, whip the cream to medium peaks. It is important not to over-whip the cream, or you will end up with butter.

Pour the melted chocolate into the whipped cream, mixing quickly. Use as you wish and keep refrigerated.

Yum! Yum!