France- Apple Tarte Tatin

A Little History:

Like most great dishes and discoveries, the Tarte Tatin was actually made by mistake! The tart was first made at the hotel Tatin in Lamotte- Beuvron, which is about 100 miles south of the french capital, Paris. There are many different stories surrounding the mistake that led to this yummy dish.The most common that I found however, was about how one of the sisters who ran the hotel was overworked and whilst making an apple pie she left the apples and butter cooking for too long. She smelt them burning and desperately tried to save the dish by chucking some pastry on the top of the pan and throwing the whole dish in the oven. By her leaving the apples on for too long, we now have this scrummy apple dish! 

Ingredients:

• 50 grams of butter
• 50 grams of golden caster sugar (it must be golden so you have a lovely shiny glaze)
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)
• 6 medium Cox's apples
• 1 pack of fresh ready rolled puff pastry 

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 220 degrees celsius/ gas mark 7/ fan 200 degrees celsius. Peel, core and quarter the apples, put them in a bowl and place to one side. If you want them to stop going brown, sprinkle a little lemon juice on the apples. 

2. Melt the butter in a 20cm tart tatin tin (or if you're like me and didn't know you could actually get a special tart tatin tin just use a 20cm frying pan!) on a medium heat on a hob, then add the sugar and stir until it begins to caramelize, then add the cinnamon. Stand back for this bit, thrown in the apples, the sugar will spit but don't worry that's normal, just be prepared to get burnt! Cook the apples over a medium heat for 10 minutes, stir every now and again so the apples can soak in the yummy sugar, the apple juice will allow the mixture to thicken. Remove from the heat.

3. Roll the pastry out and then prick with a fork. Move fast here, quickly place the pastry on the top of the apples and the cut away the excess pastry, leave about 2 cm, then tuck the pastry in like you would tuck a child into a warm bed!

 4. Place in the oven for 20 - 30 minutes, mine took 22 minutes, or until the pastry is golden brown. Take out and cool for 5 minutes. Place the plate on top of the pan and then flip the pan, the tart should come out without a hitch, if it doesn't come out then run a knife around the edge of the tart and try again!

You can serve the tart with a sprinkling of icing sugar, cream or vanilla ice cream. You could replace the apples with other fruits like pears, plums or pineapple. You could also make it savoury by adding onions, tomatoes or shallots.

Thank you very much to my good friend Ruzi who took the pictures! 

Next dish- Trout in paper with dill and lemon (yes that's baked in my opinion!) 

I think we do need something savoury for the sake of our teeth! :) 

Thank you to the BBC for the recipe!