Apple Tarte Tatin: Happy Birthday Mr. J

I am exactly 29 days older than Mr. J.  And quite frankly I relish every single second of those days.  They are all about me and my birthday.  

But the time has come to now celebrate Mr. J.  As much as I love my birthday, I almost, almost enjoy celebrating others birthday just as much.  Birthdays are the day.

Mr. J is off in Chicago and I hope he is going to have sometime to have a might fine meal in the windy city.  I was bummed that he wasn't going to be around on his big day, but we made other plans. 

These plans of course included an apple dessert. I really am sick of apple pie.  I was thinking about doing a cake but Mr. J just doesn't like cake.  Even an apple cake would not be his favorite thing on his birthday.

After a bit of hunting around I came across a recipe for Tarte Tatin.  This is a French apple dish that has some history with us. 

I studied aboard in Paris.  We were dating at the time and Mr. J decided he would spend his spring break with me in France.  Up until then Mr. J went to Florida on vacation and not anywhere else.  And he didn't like to fly.

A flight overseas, to a country he didn't speak the language was big time.  We have all sorts of memories from this trip but one is fitting for this recipe.

Many tourist and non-tourist restaurants alike serve Tarte Tatin for dessert.  Mr. J probably ordered one every day he was in France.  Every time the crust was blackened burnt.  It was gross.

He would still order it but just pick off the apples to eat.  It was his joke that the French didn't know how to cook.

So when I saw this recipe I knew I wanted to make a Tarte Tatin for his birthday.  One that was not burnt black.

Happy Birthday Mr. J!  We are now back to being the same age for 11 more months.

Apple Tarte Tatin

by Emily Morris, adpated from Smitten Kitchen and Michael Ruhlman

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 50 minutes

Keywords: bake saute dessert apple pie fall

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Ingredients (serves 8)

• 6 medium apples - I used Fuji apples.
• 1 stick butter
• 1 sugar
• 1 store bought pie crust
• A 9-inch ovenproof skillet, heavy enough that you fear dropping it on your toes

Instructions

Peel apples, halve and core apples. Once cored, cut lengthwise into quarters (i.e. four pieces per apple) and cut a bevel along their inner edge, which will help their curved exteriors stay on top as they rest on this edge.

Melt butter in skillet over medium heat. Sprinkle in 1 cup sugar and whisk it over the heat until it becomes the palest of caramels. Off the heat, add the apples to the skillet, arranging them rounded sides down in one layer. Lay any additional apple wedges rounded sides down in a second layer, starting from the center.

Return the pan to the stove and cook in the caramel for another 20 to 25 minutes over moderately high heat. With a spoon, regularly press down on the apples and baste them caramel juices from the pan.

Remove from heat and very carefully rotate apples, flipping each one over. The apples will shrink a bit and by the end of the cooking time, your second layer of apples might end up slipping into the first — this is fine. Cook for 5 more minutes.

Preheat oven to 375. Roll out your pie crust to a 9-inch circle and trim if needed. Remove skillet from heat again, and arrange pie crust round over apples. Tuck it in around the apples for nicer edges later. Bake until the pastry is puffed and golden brown, about 20 minutes.

Once baked, let cool for 30 minutes.

Use potholders to place a plate or serving dish (larger in diameter than the pan) over the pasty and quick flip upside down to unmold the pastry and apples at once onto the plate. If any apples stubbornly remain behind in the pan, nudge them out with a spatula.

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