Pâte Brisée and Tarte Tatin

February 14 2019

Before I dive in this recipe, I made this for my mom.

She cannot bake. She can’t.

So, I am the designated dessert person. When she needs to bring a dessert somewhere, she asks me to help, which means I make, and she watches.

She will help with clean up. So that is helpful.

So, this recipe is a two-parter. The crust and the filling.

Martha’s pie and tart recipes have a standard pie crust dough – Pâte Brisée_.or Tart Dough. She introduces these at the beginning of the chapter, so it is not repeated in each recipe that calls for it.

I was hesitant to try the food processor for the Pâte Brisée.

My grandmother has the flakiest, most versatile dough that is really simple, and I make it in my mixer. It is amazing.

I questioned the food processor.

Patience is the key to this dough because it does not look right until the end when it comes together.

I persevered, and it came out great.

It was so simple, I am making a bunch of these and freezing them for future recipes.

Tarte Tatin

Guys, I didn’t burn the sugar!

This recipe calls for making a caramel – or “cooking sugar” which is super easy to burn, and I am afraid of doing it.

I am not a fan of the hurry up and wait game, making caramel is just that.

Most times I have had my husband help me with a step like this.

He is more patient and doesn’t panic. I am impatient and am prone to panic. We are perfect for each other.

As I mentioned, don’t like waiting. Boiling sugar is waiting…until it is the right color. Now, Martha does provide a photo of what she means by “light amber” “dark amber” etc. So, there is a visual that I can strive for.

This is helpful and eases me slightly.

This tart is basically an upside-down apple pie with one crust, so the apples are placed in the pie plate first with all the caramel and then flipped once it is baked.

That step was interesting.

I was able to flip it out without burning myself with the caramel, and it looked quite spectacular for being only apples, sugar and pie dough.

My cookie sheet that I turned it out on, is a smidge narrower that the pie plate I used and was a little awkward. The caramel juiciness ran all over the cookie sheet, but it looked great!

So, when my parents picked it up I told them to reheat in the oven and drizzle the ‘floating caramel’ over the tart slices and ice cream (Martha recommends crème fraiche – easy on the fancy there Martha) when serving.

Waiting for the feedback…again…waiting…