As a self-confessed Francophile, I’m always keen to try making French dishes, especially desserts. I’ve been seeing lots of tarte tatin recipes lately although none of them really appealed to me, so I decided to make my own version which is a (very simple) mix of lots of recipes I’ve seen. It’s probably not correct in terms of method, but it was extremely easy to make and very tasty.
Ingredients:
- 1 sheet ready-rolled puff pastry
- 50g unsalted butter, plus 1 Tbsp extra
- 100g brown sugar
- 1tsp vanilla extract
- 6-8 pears
- 1tsp ground cinnamon
Method:
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Place a 9-inch round cake tin on the puff pastry and cut around the base, leaving about 1cm excess. Prick with a fork and place in the fridge until needed. Peel the pears, then core them and cut them into quarters.
Heat the butter and sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat and allow them to melt together without stirring too much. Stir the vanilla into the butter and sugar mix.
Once melted, pour the sugar syrup into the base of the cake tin, then arrange the pear pieces in a circle (with the tips pointing into the middle). Fill in any gaps with remaining pear pieces. Chop the additional butter into small chunks and dot them over the pears, then sprinkle the cinnamon on top.
Bake in the oven for 25 minutes, then place the pastry over them, tucking the edges down the side of the tin, and then put back into the oven for another 30 minutes, or until the pastry is golden.
Once removed from the oven, place a plate over the tarte tatin and slowly flip the tarte over a sink (there will be lots of juice that runs off). Serve with ice-cream, cream, crème fraîche or some vanilla yoghurt for a lighter option.
