Tart Tatin Mario Batali Recipes

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
• Add the sugar to a 10-inch cast-iron skillet over medium-low heat. Cook gently, swirling often until the sugar melts and becomes golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes. Remove the skillet from the heat.
• Peel, core and halve the apples. Begin arranging the apple halves in a circular shape around the border of the skillet, standing them on the core ends. Fill the center part of the skillet with a smaller circle of the apples. Fill in any gaps with the smaller top and bottom pieces. Because the fruit will shrink considerably as it cooks, it is better to crowd the pan with fruit.
• Place the skillet back on the stovetop on a fairly high heat and cook until the fruit starts to become tender and soak up the caramel at the bottom, 12 to 15 minutes. Remove from the heat again and rotate each apple piece halfway so the tops of the fruit are now sitting in the caramel on the bottom. Return the skillet to the heat and cook for an additional 5 to 8 minutes. Remove the skillet from the heat.
• Roll the puff pastry dough on a lightly floured surface so it's larger than the skillet by 1 inch. Gently drape it over the skillet. Tuck the dough edges loosely inside the skillet so it covers the fruit (as if you are tucking the fruit into a pastry bed).
• Bake until bubbly around the edges, golden brown and delicious, 25 to 30 minutes. Remove and cool 5 to 10 minutes. Then, scoop and spoon onto plates. Serve with vanilla ice cream.

Steps:

• In the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade, place the flours, sugar and butter. Pulse 5 or 6 times in 1/2-second bursts to break up the butter. Add the shortening, turn on the machine and immediately add the ice water, pulsing 2 or 3 times. The dough should look like a mass of smallish lumps and should just hold together in a mass when a handful is pressed together. If the mixture is too dry, pulse in more water by droplets.
• Turn the dough out onto the work surface and with the heel of your hand, rapidly and roughly push egg-size blobs into a 6-inch smear. Gather the dough into a relatively smooth cake, wrap in plastic and refrigerate at least 2 hours (or up to 2 days).
• Slice the halved apples into 4 lengthwise wedges each, and toss in a large bowl with the lemon juice and zest and 1/2 cup sugar. Drain the apples after macerating 20 minutes.
• In a 9-inch skillet melt the butter over high heat. Stir in the remaining sugar and cook until the syrup bubbles and caramelizes, and turns a brown color. Remove the pan from the heat and arrange a layer of apple slices in a neat pattern on the caramel in the skillet, then arrange the remaining apples neatly on top.
• Return the pan to moderately high heat and cook for about 25 minutes, covering the pan after 10 minutes. Every few minutes press down on the apples and baste them with the exuded juices. When the juices are thick and syrupy, remove the pan from the heat.
• On a lightly floured surface, roll the chilled dough into a circle, 3/16-inch thick and 1-inch larger than the top of the pan. Drape the dough over the apples, pressing the edge of the dough between the apples and the inside of the pan. Cut 4 small steam holes on the top of the dough. Bake until the pastry has browned and crisped, about 20 minutes.
• Unmold the tart onto a serving dish (so the pastry is on the bottom), and serve warm or cold with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream, as desired.

Steps:

• Cut butter into little chunks and keep cold to work into pastry. Whisk flour, sugar, and salt together in a mixing bowl. Add butter and work into the flour until coarsely distributed. Whisk in egg, water, and vanilla; work together with 2 forks until it just barely holds together. Use a piece of plastic wrap to ball up the dough and refrigerate for 20 to 30 minutes.
• While the dough is refrigerating, make the filling:
• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
• Melt the butter and sugar together in a 12-inch nonstick oven-proof skillet over medium-high heat. Add the apple slices and stir to coat with melted butter mixture. Sprinkle with cinnamon and cook until apples have softened slightly and take on some color, about 15 minutes. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Smooth the apples out into an even layer in the pan.
• Roll out the refrigerated dough on a floured countertop into a 13-inch disk and lay over the top of the apples, trimming any excess. Prick with a fork in several places to let steam release. Brush the egg all over the top of the dough and bake for 40 minutes or until golden browned.
• Allow to cool nearly fully before inverting onto a serving platter. Serve with vanilla ice cream or custard.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. 4 tablespoons Butter 1/2 cup Sugar In a large ovenproof saute pan melt butter over medium-high heat. Once bubbling sprinkle in sugar. 4-5 Ripe and Firm Pears (peeled and cored and then halved lengthwise) Add pears to pan cut-side down. Cook until sugar begins to turn light golden brown. 1 Package Quality Puff Pastry (thawed) Top with puff pastry tucking edges into the pan. Transfer to preheated oven and cook for 25 minutes or until pastry is golden brown. Vanilla Ice Cream to serve Place the serving side of a larger flat platter over pan. Platter should be larger than the pan. Carefully flip platter and pan to reveal tarte. Serve with ice cream.

Steps:

• At least one day before you plan to cook the tart, prepare the apples: Slice off the bottom of each apple so it has a flat base. Peel and quarter the apples. Use a small sharp knife to trim the hard cores and seeds from the center of each quarter; don't worry about being too neat. Transfer to a bowl and refrigerate, lightly covered, for at least one day or up to three days. (This key step reduces the amount of liquid in the tart. Don't worry if the apples turn brown; they will be browned during the cooking anyway.)
• When ready to cook, heat oven to 375 degrees (or 350 if using convection). Thickly coat the bottom of a 10-inch heavy ovenproof skillet, preferably nonstick metal, with butter. Sprinkle sugar evenly on top.
• Cut one piece of apple into a thick round disk and place in the center of the skillet to serve as the "button." Arrange the remaining apple pieces, each one standing on its flat end, in concentric circles around the button. Keep the pieces close together so that they support one another, standing upright. They will look like the petals of a flower.
• On a floured surface, roll out the puff pastry about 1/8-inch thick. Place an upside-down bowl or pan on the pastry and use the tip of a sharp knife to cut out a circle about the same size as the top of your skillet. Lift out the circle and drape gently over the apples. Use your hands to tuck the pastry around the apple pieces, hugging them together firmly.
• Place the skillet on the stovetop over medium heat until golden-brown juice begins to bubble around the edges, 3 minutes (if the juices keep rising, spoon out as needed to remain level with pastry). If necessary, raise the heat so that the juices are at a boil. Keep cooking until the juices are turning darker brown and smell caramelized, no longer than 10 minutes more.
• Transfer skillet to the oven and bake 45 to 50 minutes, until puff pastry is browned and firm.
• Let cool 5 minutes, then carefully turn out onto a round serving plate. (Or, if not serving immediately, let cool completely in the pan; when ready to serve, rewarm for 15 minutes in a 350-degree oven before turning out.) If any apples remain stuck in the pan, gently use your fingers or a spatula to retrieve them, and rearrange on the pastry shell. Cut in wedges and serve warm with heavy cream, crème fraîche or vanilla ice cream.

Steps:

• Roll the pastry to a 3mm-thick round on a lightly floured surface and cut a 24cm circle, using a plate as a guide. Lightly prick all over with a fork, place on a baking sheet, then cover and freeze while preparing the apples.
• Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Peel, quarter and core the apples. Put the sugar in a flameproof 20cm ceramic tatin dish or a 20cm ovenproof heavy-based frying pan and place over a medium-high heat. Cook the sugar for 5-7 mins to a dark amber caramel syrup that's starting to smoke, then turn off the heat and stir in the 60g diced chilled butter.
• To assemble the tarte tatin, arrange the apple quarters very tightly in a circle around the edge of the dish first, rounded-side down, then fill in the middle in a similar fashion. Gently press with your hands to ensure there are no gaps. Brush the fruit with the melted butter.
• Bake in the oven for 30 mins, then remove and place the disc of frozen puff pastry on top - it will quickly defrost. Tuck the edges down the inside of the dish and, with a knife, prick a few holes in the pastry to allow steam to escape. Bake for a further 40-45 mins until the pastry is golden brown and crisp.
• Allow to cool to room temperature for 1 hr before running a knife around the edge of the dish and inverting it onto a large serving plate that is deep enough to contain the juices. Serve with crème fraîche or vanilla ice cream.

Steps:

• Peel and core the apples whole, then halve them crosswise to create doughnut-shaped rounds. In a bowl, toss the apple halves gently with the lemon juice and 1/4 cup of the sugar. Set aside for 30 minutes in the fridge.
• Preheat the oven to 400°F.
• In a 12-inch ovenproof skillet, melt the butter over medium heat. Sprinkle in the remaining 3/4 cup sugar and swirl it in the pan until it becomes a golden brown caramel, slightly chunky with granules of unmelted sugar, then remove from the heat.
• Lay the apples in the skillet, arranging 6 rounds on the perimeter and one in the center.
• Cut the remaining 3 apple rounds into 1/2-inch pieces and slide them in between the halves to make it a tight configuration.
• Return the pan to the stovetop over medium heat and cook the apples in the caramel for 8 to 10 minutes.
• Roll out your puff pastry to a 13- to 14-inch piece and trim it to a circle. Remove the skillet from the heat and lay the pastry round over the apples.
• The caramel will be extremely hot, so do not touch it with bare fingers, but use a spatula to tuck the edges of the pastry around the apples toward the bottom of the pan, to create a lip on the final tart.
• At this point, it does not need to look perfect, and if the pastry does not fit exactly, do not fret-just make sure that you can patch together a full cover for the apples and that the pastry (pastry quilt, if you will) goes to the edges of the apples and down over that outer edge.
• Bake until the pastry is puffed and golden brown, about 20 minutes-darker is better than lighter.