Tarte Tatin for Two

It is distressing how easy it is to make a tarte tatin, particularly now that good-quality puff-pastry is readily available. I say 'distressing' because I may or may not have eaten three of these this week, all by myself (please note that the recipe below is meant to serve '2'). I think we can all agree that no matter how delicious, there is only so much sugar and butter one needs to consume in a calendar week...

3 Golden Delicious apples (I've also used Jonathons and Grannies)
1 tbs lemon juice
½ cup (110g) caster sugar
20g unsalted butter, chopped
Ready-rolled puff pastry sheet (must be real butter puff, not oil - if you can get Careme pastry, it's worth the money)
Cream, to serve


1. Preheat oven to 220ºC (200ºC fan-forced).

2. Peel apples, cut into quarters, remove cores (cutting each quarter at the core so it has a “flat” side), and toss the quarters in a large bowl with the lemon juice and 1 tablespoon of the sugar.

3. Using a 20cm frying pan as a guide, cut pastry into a round slightly larger than the pan, prick with a fork.

4. Melt butter in a 20cm non-stick frying pan over medium-high heat. Cover with the remaining sugar. Cook over medium-low heat, shaking pan occasionally to spread around any dark spots that appear, until a rich caramel forms.

5. Place apple quarters into pan, rounded side down, arranging them around pan. Cut remaining apple to fill gaps. Cook the apples over medium heat for about 10 minutes until caramel is bubbling up in the pan, shaking pan occasionally to prevent burnt spots.

6. Lay the pastry over the apples, tucking any protruding edges around edges of pan.

7. Place the pan in the oven, cook for about 25 minutes, or until the puff pastry has risen and cooked. The pastry should be dry and flaky. Stand tarte in pan for 10 minutes before carefully turning out onto a serving plate (do NOT skip this step). Serve with cream.

Cherry Marscapone Tart

Yesterday I was shopping for a dinner party we had planned and I was panicking because I could not for the life of me think of what to serve for dessert. Then, without fanfare, in the fruit cabinet, appeared the most gorgeous punnet of fresh cherries. Though remarkably early in the year for such delicacies, they looked dark, plump and delicious and I couldn't resist buying them. Which meant, of course, I had to find something to do with them and this was the winning recipe if for no other reason than the pastry is to die for. I adapted it from a recipe I found in Food With Friends (a great book for entertaining) which called for tokay in the filling...

PASTRY
200g plain flour
100g ground almonds
pinch of salt
150g soft butter, diced
2 egg yolks
1/4 cup caster sugar

Pre-heat the oven to 180 C.
Rub the flour, almonds, salt and butter together to form a breadcrumby mixture.
Lightly beat the yolks and stir in the sugar. Whip it around until the sugar is dissolved - they will go quite stiff initially but when the yolks are fluid again you're good to go.
Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture and pour in the yolks.
Knead the mix gently until you can pull it all into a ball. Wrap in glad wrap and bung it in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Roll the pastry to about 3mm thick and lay it in a greased 25cm fluted tart tin. When I did this the whole thing fell apart into a hundred little clumps so I just pressed it into the tin with my fingers being careful to make sure the pastry is evenly distributed.
Run a knife across the top of the tin to trim the excess and put it back in the fridge for another 30 minutes.
Bake blind for 15 minutes then for another 5 to crisp up the pastry. Allow to cool.

FILLING
250g marscapone
2 medium free-range eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 tbsp amaretto
1/4 cup caster sugar
500g cherries, pitted (I sliced off the cheeks)
icing sugar to serve

Lightly beat together marscapone, eggs, vanilla, amaretto and sugar until combined.
Lay the cherry cheeks cut side down on the cooked pastry and pour over the marscapone mix.
Bake for 20 minutes or until set and golden brown.

The original recipe recommended serving the tart at room temperature to bring out the flavour of the cherries but I served it warm and it was delicious.
Dust with icing sugar and serve with double cream.

Photos to follow!
(I forgot to take some so I will have to cook it again!)