The abundance of fresh stuff coming from the garden was still into full speed. That means sometimes it triggers me to start making and baking something, even though it wouldn't regularly be something that I would make.
I had a crapload of pears coming from the tree, and still a lot of eggs coming from the chickens. What to do, what to do.
And then I thought about the crazy French guy which I had stayed at a while back who also made all of the dinners for the guests himself. At a certain point he said, 'Give me half an hour, let me whip up some desert.'
He came back with full blown tarte tatin also with everything from the garden, literally in half an hour. It was fantastic so that made me think about what I wanted to do as well.
As you can see a tarte tatin is a bit like an upside down cake. And that is also how you make it.
It all starts with the ingredients
I started with making the dough because to me that is usually the most challenging.
This is what I used for the dough. As you can see there is nothing special in there
- 50 grams butter
- 50 grams sugar
- Pinch of salt
- 125 grams flour
- 1 egg
And the mystery ingredient. A little branch of thyme from the garden as well, for the savoury flavour in there.
I started with mixing the butter and the sugar with the thyme by hand. This was not too challenging actually when you leave the butter to room temperature for a second.
The I added in the flour and the egg and ofcourse that is when it started to become a mess for a bit. But while keep on adding some flour, eventually it turned into a nice ball which I didn't even roll out into a circle, but just pulled it by hand. Lazy style you know ;)
Making the filling
I started with peeling the pears that I had from the garden. They don't look that nice, but they are so damn sweet and perfectly to use for baking. So I peeled them for the aesthetic aspect, but I guess you could also leave the skin on there if you would like.
I cut them in small wedges after that.
Then I continued with making the salted caramel topping. I used an ovenproof pan that I would later on just stick into the oven.
The ingredients for the topping are also nothing crazy:
- 50 grams bastard sugar
- 50 grams butter
- half a tablespoon of salt
Add these into the pan at low heat.
While stirring slowly the butter and the sugar will melt into a brown caramel mixture. This tuff is liquid and boiling hot so that is something to be aware of.
Later on when little bubbles are forming, that is when the mixture is ready
Assembling
After the mixture is ready it is time to drop into the pear wedges. I tried to put them nicely in a shape but you know..they have a mind of their own :D
Again..this is all burning hot, so it is a bit of a challenge getting it all done. Then it is time to drape the pear mixture with the dough you had already made before.
I tried tucking it in on the sides for a little bit to prevent the caramel from boiling out. Ofcourse this didn't work, but the intention was still there..
I put the pan with everything in it in the oven for 20 minutes at 200 degrees Celsius and after taking it out I gave it 10 minutes to rest. Still everything was in the pan.
Then it was time for the upside down move. I used a big plate as a bottom to flip it and that worked just fine.
This was super tasty and with this amount of ingredients it was like a piece of pie for 4 people. Originally it was from a bigger pan of 28 centimeters of diameter, but there is no point in making that amount of cake I find. Rather have it fresh and maybe doing a decent run if you need so.
Tarte tatin, I get it now how the French dude made this in half an hour. It was super easy and tasty!
