Tarte Tatin

Why is caramel always so difficult?

Let me start with saying that this tarte tatin was really, really delicious. Not as brilliant as the this tarte tatin the first time around, not as bad as the second time, and quite a bit better than this one. It could have used a bit more caramel (= more sugar!), but that was about it.

That said, I'm not entirely happy with the recipe instructions, but maybe that's just because it's just so hard.

The biggest problem was the caramel. At first I melted the butter and then only added the sugar, fearing the sugar would burn otherwise. Well, no, the butter browned before the sugar even made a move. I continued until the mass had caramelised, but I thought it was too dark, and decided to start again, starting out with butter and sugar at the same time. The same thing threatened to happen. It really reminded me of this Caramelised Chicory and Onion Tarte Tatin. In the end, I decided thar caramel would have enough chance to caramelise in the oven, and decided to proceed with the mixture of molten butter and not yet melted sugar. This was probably a good idea, as it made it fairly easy to spread the caramel evenly.

Also, in the beginning, I was wary of the dough, it reminded me a lot of the failed Individual Apple Pies, but after I checked and compared with my favourite tarte tatin recipe (see above), I was less worried.

It was fairly sticky, though, but then I had a brilliant idea: when I wasn't able to get it off the baking parchment, I stuck it in the freezer for five minutes - so much better! The only problem was that I then tried to slide it on top of the baking tin that I had placed on low heat to keep the caramel soft, and the butter in the dough instantly melted... Aaah!

Last, small stuff: remember to keep more than three apples at hand, just in case. I needed five, and I'm glad I used them. And the tarte needed 20 extra minutes in the oven, while we only gave it minutes to cool.

We served this with Fior di Latte Vanilla Ice Cream - while the ice cream was very nice, I had expected something heavier, creamier to go with the tarte tatin.