Tarte Tatin

Missoula just wrapped up its farmers' market season.  We brought home lots of goodies last Saturday, but I wish we'd stocked up on more apples! The Jonagolds and Honeycrisps that we bought were beautiful and equally delicious.  I made pie crust on Sunday afternoon while Ford napped and used it and the Jonagolds for a Tarte Tatin yesterday while he napped.  Baking and cooking require a lot of advance planning these days.

I used this recipe from Epicurious, but skipped the brandied caramel sauce in favor of good old vanilla ice cream. I love how French, yet rustic this dessert is.  Butter, sugar, pastry, fruit.  No need for pinched or latticed crusts, although those are fun too.

First you make a caramel sauce in the cast iron skillet.  Just butter and sugar! But you have to stir it constantly to be sure it doesn't burn.

When the caramel turns a dark amber, the smaller skillet gets transferred to a larger one full of ice cubes to stop the caramel from cooking.

All the apples get peeled and sliced (if you even make 2 apple pies or tarts a year, having a peeler/corer gadget is a must!) and arranged in concentric circles on top of the caramel in the skillet.  The rest get piled on top.

Roll out the pie crust and lay it over the apples, tucking it carefully around the edges.

Bake for about 55 minutes, then let it stand for 5 minutes before inverting the tart onto a plate.  My apples slid en masse over to the side of the crust, so I had to scoot them back over and thus my concentric circles don't show up in the finished product....but it was still delicious.  Bon appetit!