Tarte Tatin

[idun]

Pate Brise, Pate Sucree, or Puff?

Now that is the question which pastry should be on a tarte tatin. The very first time I had it, it was made with a pate brisé. I have had it / made it with pate brise and with a pate sucrée too, and I admit I have made it with 'puff', but I would always say that the 'true' recipe would have brise or sucree.

One of these must be 'tradition des soeurs Tatin'!

[CSV]

Ginette Mathiot's book "I Know How to Cook" says Shortcrust (I have the English translation[:)])

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Know-How-Cook-Clotilde-Dusoulier/dp/0714848042/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1415259280&sr=1-1&keywords=i+know+how+to+cook

[Patf]

I've never made Tarte Tatin, and there isn't a recipe in my copy of Elizabeth David's French Provincial Cookery.

But she does give a recipe for an apple flan with yeast pastry, which seems like an apple pizza!

[Loiseau]

Here's Julia Child's recipe:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tarte-tatin-recipe.html

From the pastry-making description, it sounds like shortcrust.

Angela

[idun]

I saw Marcus Waring on Professional Masterchef say that it had to be 'puff' last night..... that was the right way.

How these super star chefs sometimes lose sight of 'tradition'. And it is very good with good pate brisé, which I personally would say it was better than 'puff'. He has certainly put me off watching this masterchef series if he is going to say such things.

A german friend uses yeast sweet pastry sometimes, I don't know why to be honest, maybe that is a 'tradition' for the dishes she does.

Maybe I'll have to re-think my views on traditional recipes, I do know that french friends would rave about some food or other and when I tasted it, it was usually OK, nothing special, nothing I'd want again. But ofcourse I haven't got the history with the dish, those fond memories from childhood. And I'm sure that I am the same with some of the foods I adore, my little love affair with these things started at a very young age and has never dimished.

[pomme]

There is a long discussion and lots of reader comments in a 2011 article How to cook perfect tarte tatin in The Guardian

see http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2011/oct/20/how-to-cook-perfect-tarte-tatin

[idun]

Do you know I'll stick with what they paysannes say from my old village and xxxxxx to these posh chefs.

What a load of tosh that article was, IMO, bien sûr.

I do as was suggested to me on the car park of a ski slope when we were having the gouter after an afternoon's skiing with the junior ski club. One of the mother's had brought one and some flasks of coffee for us parents and it was the first time I had had it.

Cut pastry (whatever you like, I prefer shortcrust) slightly bigger than the tin it is going in.

Good lump of butter in a frying pan or heavy cake tin. Then some sugar, brown, or white or a mix, pinch of salt, let it all melt slowly on a low heat and add halves or quarter or slices of apples depending on how you like them and it'll need plenty of apples. (I use what I've got, but like golden delicious best when they are still green). Increase the heat, and keep the apples moving as the caramel forms, and then when the apples are just going golden and the sauce is too. If in a frying pan, I usually put it in a cake tin and cover in pastry and bake. Nothing fancy, but very very tasty and you can mess around with this all you want and make it look poncy, but it will not taste any better than this recipe........IMO ofcourse. All done au pif, because I do a lot of my cooking au pif and I was given the recette au pif too. Christine thought I'd know what I was doing and I did.

Some of those photos on that link looked unappetising...... awful somehow. Mine may not be beautiful, but as I prefer sliced apples mine is a happy disorganised, or is that slightly chaotic finish of lovely golden caramelised apples in their caramel sauce. Wonderful warm with ice cream or cream.

[Patf]

Another question for this recipe is which apples? You use golden delicious, Idun, but to me, they're insipid. Another recipe says reine des reinettes.

For a normal apple pie or crumble I like the canadian russets, withe a squeeze of lemon I think they're the nearest you can get here to Bramleys.

[vivienz]

I recall hearing Albert Roux talking about tarte tatin a few years back.  Sadly, I can't remember what pastry he recommended, but the variety of apples did - he reckoned that a mixture of coxes and russets was the best, better even than traditional French varieties!

[Pommier]

I make the caramel first (sugar, water and butter), then when that's going golden I add sliced apples which I've heated in the microwave. When it's all coated and the right shade of brown I slap Lidl feuillette pastry on top, tuck it down the sides of the frying pan and into the oven. I've found Lidl's puff pastry the best of all the makes.

[pomme]

[quote user="idun"]Do you know I'll stick with what they paysannes say from my old village and xxxxxx to these posh chefs.

What a load of tosh that article was, IMO, bien sûr.

I do as was suggested to me on the car park of a ski slope when we were having the gouter after an afternoon's skiing with the junior ski club. .

[/quote]

Is that the authentic recipe for Tarte des desmoiselles Tatin from the ski slopes in the Loire (where the Tatin sisters lived)?

[pomme]

[quote user="vivienz"]I recall hearing Albert Roux talking about tarte tatin a few years back.  Sadly, I can't remember what pastry he recommended, but the variety of apples did - he reckoned that a mixture of coxes and russets was the best, better even than traditional French varieties!

[/quote]

In two of the Roux brothers books I have, in which they give Tarte Tatin recipes, they recommend halved apples, preferably Cox's Orange Pippins, and puff pastry.

Raymond Blanc seems to prefer halved Granny Smiths and puff pastry.

French chefs seem to prefer Reine des Reinettes (King of Pippins), as, presumably, they are easier to obtain in France.

[idun]

Well, I have tried many types of apples and green golden delicious do as good a job as any. It's a good caramel makes all the difference as far as I am concerned. Same with sticky toffee pudding, that toffee sauce isn't up to scratch and you may as well not have bothered.

AND I have looked up tarte tatin and all the french recettes have pate brise or pate sucree. So yes, the demoiselles de ski, are probably 'right'. This is basically something that you knock up in about 15 minutes, maybe 20 depending on how nimble one is with the apples...... and then bake it.

I sort of know why the grand chefs do it, as it looks more on the plate, well that is my theory.

[vivienz]

I can't see bramleys working well for a tarte tatin as one of the nicest things about them is the way they collapse into a sharp/sweet apple fluff, just perfect for crumble but for not for something that needs the apples to retain their shape, as with a tatin.  Coxes on the other hand are lovely in anything; I guess the russet is a nod to the reinette and they do have that delicious hint of pear about them. 

One of the more successful pastries that I've used for tarte tatin is Delia Smith's quick flaky pastry, which is really easy to make.  225g plain flour, 175g of butter in 1 piece and a drop or two of water.  You put the butter into the freezer till it goes hard and then grate it into the flour and bring it together with the drop of water.  Simplicity itself but a result that seems as though more effort went into it.  I think I added some sugar to make a sweet pastry for the tarte tatin.

I'd better make dinner before I drool over my keyboard!

[mint]

I am joining in because I have come fresh from the TV and the Hairy Bikers.

No, I am NOT a fan of these two; I watched the tennis from the O2 arena and then I fell asleep.  When I woke up, the tennis was over [:$] finished early apparently, and they showed a repeat of the episode when they travelled from Lyon all the way along the eastern side of France down to Provence.

They featured a tarte tatin made with abricots and they deffo said flakey pastry.

Vivienz, I know exactly the DS recipe for rough puff pastry (I think that's what she called it) and I have used it a lot in the past.  Not used it for ages as I am nowadays always using idun's mascarpone pastry and that puffs up a little as well AND tastes like you have taken a lot of effort over it![:D]

[idun]

Well this is from a french site and I think that it says it all.

La fameuse recette de tarte des sœurs Tatin.Des pommes, du caramel, une pâte brisée, le tour est joué.

I only use green golden delicious apples, not when they are golden, or I use gala.

I wouldn't like a tart apple in this recipe, an apple pie is different, although I am 'off' apple pies these days, and someone suggested strudel instead, but I really hate strudels, beurk, sultanas and canelle....... not my cup of tea at all.

My favourite fruit pie at the moment is cherry pie and lemon merangue pie too.

When I make a crumble, I often use the apple recipe for a tarte tatin, add some maple syrup to the caramel mix and walnuts, it is very nice, hot with ice cream.

[Patf]

My current favourites are raspberries.

Not those little punnets in the fresh section, but the frozen ones, which are much cheaper, and better quality.

I've made a dessert with sponge fingers and raspberries, and made a crumble with them last week.

[idun]

Yes, I love a mix of good frozen raspberries with a few frozen myrtilles thrown in.

My mother used to make something she called a drop pudding. As if making a big yorkshire pudding, put the mix onto the hot oil and then drop soft fruits on top of the batter, strawberries, or blackberries, but my favourite for this too are the raspberries and myrtilles, and bake as a yorkshire pud. When baked, spinkle sugar on top and........ cream, delicious.

[nectarine]

Each time I've made tarte tatin most of it has stayed in the frying pan and had to be scraped out. Not sure what I'm doing wrong but would it work if I lined the pan with a sheet of baking paper?

[mint]

Nectarine, you have my utmost sympathy!

The one and ONLY time I attempted to make this tarte, it was a horrendous soggy mess.  I don't even like it that much so I don't plan to make it any time soon![:P]

I think I'll stick to apple crumble!  The French seem to be really "into" any type of "crumble" en ce moment![:D]

[woolybanana]

Interesting: the chaps are on a thread called 'Politicians' whilst the girlies are are something called 'Tarte Tatin'.

T'was ever thus!

[idun]

Suggestion, that you caramelise the apples in a good non stick frying pan. I always have at least four good non stick frying pans at home and once one starts 'sticking' then out it goes and is replaced, xxxxxx having to mess around with such things, I just won't do it any more.

Once the apples are caramelised, allow them to cool, then put them at the bottom of a cake tin, if itsn't a non stick one, I'd lightly butter it, cover in the pastry, I would press it down onto the apple and make sure that the pastry is slightly bigger than the baking tin, I sort of curl round the edges towards the apples. Then bake in a hot oven at about 200°c.

I would also use pate brisé or pate sucre, and not puff or flaky. Usually takes about 20mins, bake until well golden, so timing will depend on your oven. And then turn it out.

mint, I daresay you could even use the mascapone pastry too.

Turn it out and bob's your uncle.

I always think that it best served warm, but was not warm in the car park at the ski slope and it was still good.

[YCCMB]

Oddly enuff, there's a recipe for Tarte Tatin in today's Sunday Times mag. Jamie Oliver (what does he know? ) is apparently in the puff pastry camp.

Meanwhile, the Grauniad says that Larousse says it doesn't matter.

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2011/oct/20/how-to-cook-perfect-tarte-tatin

[mint]

Grotty weather today and, when the weather does not tempt me out of doors, I like to bake.

Using your mascarpone pastry, id, I made salmon en croute and some sausage meat parcels.  I would have made sausage rolls in the past but I ate at a wonderful bistrot recently and the chef made pastry parcels using some boudin blanc.

I must say the parcels, whilst tasting exactly like rolls, nonetheless win hands down when it comes to looks.  I glazed the tops with egg yolk and pinched them to make a good seal and to look like wontons.

I also made a scrumptious carrot cake (no fuss version which I have posted here in the past) and I roasted some sweet potatoes with fresh chillies and washed it all down with a very large glass of chardonnay.

I listened to some music and I have decided that I am now too stuffed to go on my rowing machine![:-))]

Come tomorrow and it will be business as usual.  No booze, a brisk walk whatever the weather and gym in the evening[:D]

Well, you might think I spend my time boringly but I never claim to want or need excitement[:P]

[idun]

Thanks for that betty, seems just brit chefs, ie working in GB, that are obsédé with puff.

mint, I fancied a baking day and then didn't. Sounds lovely, I'm glad you like the mascapone pastry, it is good and it is easy, in spite of the calories.

ps, wonton's mint? They seem to come in so many 'packages', so which did you do. I make parcels with my mascarpone pastry, cut squares, put the filling in the middle, dampen the edges and pull the sides up to the top. Dusted with icing when baked they are very pretty to serve.