tarte tatin

I agreed to bring a tarte tatin to a dinner party this week. This worried me because the last time I made a tarte tatin, the caramel was super liquidy and promptly spilled all over my pants on the drive to the dinner party. I served soupy tarte tatin and spent the night in sticky jeans. But this weekend, my tarte tatin was spot on - yay!

I forked out 7.90sfr/kilo for Granny Smith apples from Italy (why??? Italy is so close). I also treated myself to a new non-non-stick 9in pan, since I didn't have the right size for this dish. It was hard to find; almost everything is non-stick here. When I asked the sales clerk if this pan could go in the oven, she looked at me with shock and horror and asked why I would do that. Sometimes I wonder why I bother asking anyone anything?


caramelizing beautifully


I drew a circle on the parchment paper to help me roll the dough to a 12in circle


trying to fit a 12in circle into a 9in pan - why?


flipped perfectly, with one little bit of dark caramel from a hot spot on my new pan - argh!

I used the Cook's Illustrated recipe but next time I think I'll use my favorite free-form tart pastry instead of this egg pastry, which didn't excite me.