Apple Tarte Tatin

This dish was created accidentally in France by Stephanie Tatin in France in the 1880’s and thank god accidents happen!

Tarte Tatin is up there as one of my very favourite desserts and it’s incredibly simple to create!  Just ensure you don’t burn the caramel and that your cooking times are spot on, and you’ll create a truly magical dessert!

Give my version a go…

Ingredients:

• 6 braeburn (or other sweet) apples, peeled, quartered and cored
• 100g/4oz caster sugar
• 60g/2oz unsalted butter duced
• melted butter for brushing pastry
• Puff pastry, all butter, ready rolled, enough to cover circular roasting tin or oven proof pan
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 vanilla pod (optional), seeds scraped out

Method:

1. Pre-heat oven to 200°C/gas 6.

2. Put the roasting tin or pan on the hob, over a medium heat.  Cook the sugar and diced butter to a brown caramel, stirring and ensuring it doesn’t burn.  Add a tsp of ground cinnamon and the vanilla seeds.  Give the mixture a stir and cook for a further minute or so.

3. Remove from the heat, brush some of the mixture over the apple quarters and arrange them tight, around the edges of the dish, with the cores facing upwards and towards the centre, then fill in the rest of the dish the same way.  Try to ensure that there are very few gaps between the apples to ensure the tart is dense.   Cook on a medium heat for a further 10 minutes.

4. Remove from the heat, allow to cool slightly and place the disc of puff pastry on top.  Tuck in the edges against the apples and prick the pastry with a knife to allow some of the steam to escape when cooking.  Brush the pastry with the melted butter.

6. Cook in the oven for a further 25 minutes until the puff pastry is golden brown and crisp.

7. Allow to cool for at least 15 minutes (I like to wait an hour or so) then slide the blade of a sharp knife round the edges and turn upside down onto the serving plate.  Serve with clotted cream or ice cream.

 

Mango and vanilla souffle

I don’t often prepare desserts but when I do they’re usually French or Italian!  So I’ve stuck with this theme this evening and prepared mango and vanilla soufflés.  The cooking time and accuracy of ingredient volumes are completely key when preparing soufflés so follow my guide below and you should end up with something like this…

Mix it up a little and substitute the mango with raspberries or any other fruit!  Souffles are also magnificent as a savoury dish, especially cheese flavoured!

Ingredients

Meringue:

20g softened butter, to grease dishes
20g caster sugar, to coat dishes
4 medium egg whites
40g caster sugar
1 ripe mango, about 250g, peeled, stoned and finely diced

Pastry cream:
350ml milk
70g caster sugar
1 vanilla pod, split lengthways
7 medium egg yolks
50g plain flour

For the passion fruit coulis:
30g caster or icing sugar
juice of two oranges (alternatively use good quality bottled fresh orange juice)
2 passion fruit, halved

Method

For the coulis:

1. Slowly bring the orange juice and caster sugar to the boil.  Reduce by around a third. cool and add the seeds of the passion fruit.  Set aside and serve cold or re-heat when the soufflés are ready.

For the soufflés:

Preheat the oven to 200c/Gas mark 6

1.Butter 2 individual soufflé dishes (ramekins) and coat the insides with the sugar.

2. For the pastry cream, put the milk and 20g sugar in a small pan, scrape in the seeds from the vanilla pods and bring to the boil.   Take off the heat and cool just very slightly.

3. Whisk the egg yolks and remaining sugar in a bowl, then incorporate the flour and whisk.  Pour the hot milk on to the yolks, whisking continuously.  Return to the pan and whisk over a low heat for 2 minutes until the mixture has become a thick custard. Pour into a bowl and allow to cool slightly.

4.For the meringue, beat the egg whites to a thick foam then add the 40g sugar and continue to beat until they become a meringue consistency.  Fold a third of the meringue mix into the pastry cream using a whisk then fold in the rest of the meringue to the mixture, scattering in the mango as you go.

5. Divide the mixture between the soufflé dishes bringing them level with the rim.  Place the ramekins on some baking paper on an oven tray and cook for around 10 minutes or until the soufflés have risen around 2cm above the ramekin.

6. Serve the soufflés immediately

Cut a small cross in the top of the coulis and pour in the orange and passion fruit coulis!