Caramelised Apple Tart

The famous ‘Tarte Tatin’ is a gorgeous upside-down caramelised apple tart, with the pastry underneath and the apples on top, and it’s as easy as it is delicious. All you’ll need is an oven-proof frypan.

Ingredients

• 2 large Granny Smith apples
• 250g puff pastry
• 40g unsalted butter (thinly sliced)
• 70g caster sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon five-spice powder

Method

1. While you preheat the oven to 200°C, peel, core and quarter the apples.
2. Roll out the pastry to the size of your pan and a thickness of about 3mm. Prick the pastry with point of a fork and put it in the fridge to chill while you prepare the apples. (Geoff likes a thicker puff pastry so he makes his own.)
3. In a heated oven-proof frypan, layer the cold butter evenly on the bottom, mix the sugar and spices together and sprinkle over the top of the butter. Place the apple quarters onto the sugar mixture, making a layer of apples to fill the pan. Cook on medium heat until the butter and sugar start to caramelise (this should take about 5 minutes). Keep checking to see that the caramel sauce doesn’t burn.
4. Carefully place the pastry on top of the frypan and tuck in the edges inside the pan. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown. Remove from the oven and let cool slightly.
5. Turn the tart upside-down onto a serving plate, serve with vanilla ice-cream and a dusting of icing sugar.

Note: Tarte Tatin is named after the Tatin sisters who invented the dish in the early 20th century.

Copyright 2004 CTC Productions