Apple Tart Tan.

A Little Bit of Dessert History.

Have started going back to the old fashioned desserts. The old way were much simpler and interesting.  Sometimes its best to back to the start.

Research shows that the tarte Tatin was first created by accident at the Hotel Tatin in Lamotte-Beuvron, France, about 100 miles (160 km) South of Paris, in the 1880s. The hotel was run by two sisters, Stéphanie and Caroline Tatin. There are conflicting stories concerning the tart's origin, but the most common is that Stéphanie Tatin, who did most of the cooking, was overworked one day. She started to make a traditional apple pie but left the apples cooking in butter and sugar for too long. Smelling the burning, she tried to rescue the dish by putting the pastry base on top of the pan of apples, quickly finishing the cooking by putting the whole pan in the oven. After turning out the upside down tart, she was surprised to find how much the hotel guests appreciated the dessert. In an alternative version of the tart's origin, Stéphanie baked a caramelized apple tart upside-down by mistake. Regardless she served her guests the unusual dish hot from the oven and a classic was born. However, in spite of the veracity of this story, the concept of the "upside down tarts" was not a new one. For instance, patissier M.A. Carême already mentions glazed gâteaux renversées adorned with apples from Rouen or other fruit in his "Patissier Royal Parisien" (1841).

                                                            Let's thank God for food.

Ingredients

 Pastry

320g Plain flour

225g Ice-cold butter

110g Icing sugar

3 Egg yolks

 Filling

6 Cox or 4 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and cut into 8-12 wedges

¼ Lemon

110g Caster sugar

110g Butter

Method

Preheat the oven to 250C/500F/Gas 9.

First, make the pastry. In a food processor, mix the flour, butter and icing sugar just until they resemble breadcrumbs. Add the egg yolks and, using the pulse button, mix until it comes together in a dough.

Remove the dough from the mixer bowl and divide into two pieces. Wrap in clingfilm and put in the freezer to chill for at least an hour.

For the filling, place the apple wedges in a bowl, squeeze the lemon juice over them and toss them gently.

Sprinkle 85g/3oz of the sugar in a heavy-bottomed pan and place on the hob over a medium heat, turning the pan frequently and making sure the sugar doesn't burn. Allow the sugar to caramelise a little and become a pale golden brown, then remove from the heat and arrange the drained apple pieces in one layer over the bottom of the pan.

Place the pan in the oven and bake until the apples have softened a bit and started to release some liquid - about 10 minutes.

Remove from the oven and sprinkle over the remaining sugar and dot the butter on top. Remove the pastry from the freezer and, using the coarse side of a cheese grater, grate the pastry with long steady strokes over the apples until it forms an even layer at least 2.5cm/1 inch thick. Do not press down. Return to the oven, turn the heat down to 220C/425F/Gas 7 and bake until the pastry is golden brown - about 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to rest for a minute or two.

Take a heatproof serving dish that is generously larger than the pan on all sides and place over the pan. Protecting your hands with a dry folded tea-towel, and holding the dish and pan firmly together, quickly and carefully flip the pan and the dish so that the pan is on top. Tap the pan sharply a few times all round with a wooden spoon, then lift off. The tart should be left on the serving dish with the apple on top.

Serve warm with double cream, crème fraîche or vanilla ice cream.