Tarte Tatin

Today was a very productive cooking day! I finally decided to try a Tarte Tatin following my mother's recipe! Not only is it turning out delicious but also extremely easy to make! So here is the recipe for a delicious french pie :)

What you need for a ~30cm diameter pie:

• 20min to prepare
• 20min in the oven

• a bowl
• a small glass
• a pie plate
• a rolling pin (or use an empty bottle it works great too!)
• a cutting board as big as the pie plate
• 2 plates the same size as the pie plate or bigger

• 200g flour
• 100g butter
• 1/4 glass of water
• salt
• brown sugar (quantity vary with size of plate)
• fruits. 2 apples is standard, I prefer to put 3 bananas, but you can use whatever fruit you prefer (but no berries)

Start by making the batter:

• Warm up the butter in the microwave to make it soft (don't melt it all the way!)
• In the bowl, put the flour and butter and with your hands knead the mix until it becomes grainy

• Pour some salt in your 1/4 glass of water
• Make a little hole at the center of the batter and pour just a bit of water in it. 

• Put your finger in the water at the center of the batter and use it as a whisk. The batter should start agglomerating around your finger and you should end up with a little ball of sticky batter around it.

• Remove the little ball and place it on a cutting board.
• Repeat steps 4, 5 & 6 until you are out of batter.
• Once you're done with the batter, regroup all the little balls on the cutting board into one big ball of batter. It should be sticky enough that it should be easy to make. If it sticks too much to your hands, dump your hands into flour.
• Let it rest while you do the rest of the recipe

Now on to the caramel (miam!!!):

• In your pie plate pour some sugar until you have an even layer that covers the surface. The layer should be about 0.5-1cm thick.
• Peal the fruits, cut them in half and place them on the sugar (you can mix white and brown sugar if you want). They should not recover the whole plate.

• Put the pie plate as is on a cooking plate on maximum setting. The sugar will start caramelizing in a hurry. You HAVE to stay nearby during the process. 
• The moment you see the caramel is done, remove the pie plate from the cooking plates immediately.

And finally you can make your crust:

• Spread the batter with a rolling pin until it's about 0.5cm thick. Make sure you spread it enough that it can cover the entirety of the pie plate.

• Lay the think sheet of batter on the pie plate (above the caramel and the fruits naturally).
• Cut the extra batter around the pie plate.
• Make sure you fill in the edges properly. With whatever extra batter you have, reinforce the edges.
• Make a little hole in the middle of the batter to let the pie "breathe".

• Put in the oven at 220°C for 20min.
• The moment you see the crust starts being golden brown, your tarte tatin is ready!

• Take it out of the even, and turn it out from the pan onto a large plate immediately. Do not wait for the tarte to cool down or you won't be able to turn it out. Watch out not to burn yourself with the warm caramel!

Note that the proper way to eat it is when it just cooled down a bit. However I still think it's great when it's cold!  But be careful, eat it too hot and the caramel will burn you pretty badly! 

Hope You Enjoy!!