The Lemon Fool

As a change from scones we are making a tarte tatin tonight.

There are many variations but we have selected a very simple one using homemade shortcrust pastry and Braeburn eating apples.

Most of them ask for puff pastry but Larousse seems to prefer the shortcrust.

Will report tomorrow.

We didn,t manage to get the sugar and water to caramelize. It boiled off the water then turned back to sugar granules like grit. We added more water and ended with a thin syrup.

After arranging the apples we added the 5mm thick pastry and cooked for 30 minutes.

It was quite frightening to invert the very hot skillet over the receiving tin and the syrup made it’s escape somewhat.

It was not a photogenic effort but the taste was wonderful!

I think the cookie cutter I used to shape the raw apple was too big which meant that the bits were not as nicely shaped as I would have liked.

Resist the temptation to stir when making caramel, practically guarantees crystallization.

Sounds delicious

Did you use shortcrust or puff pastry? Had it loads of times and always with puff pastry.

bluedonkey:
I made shortcrust pastry

You,ll be telling us that you have had ile flottante loads of times next!

We,ll give that one a miss.

I have made it with both short crust and puff pastry, I prefer the short crust, less greasy.
Made Ils flottantes often enough. Once when I had 5 executive chefs and their wives at home for lunch!

john

johnstevens77 wrote:Once when I had 5 executive chefs and their wives at home for lunch!

john

Blimey, even in my youth I couldn't've eaten that much at one sitting!

I wonder what the calorie count is ?

Dod

Away with this fancy foreign food! Apple tart and custard, please.

bluedonkey wrote:Away with this fancy foreign food! Apple tart and custard, please.

Apple crumble and cream for me.

john

UncleEbenezer wrote:

johnstevens77 wrote:Once when I had 5 executive chefs and their wives at home for lunch!

john

Blimey, even in my youth I couldn't've eaten that much at one sitting!

Was it WC Fields who once said "I like children but I can never manage a whole one"?

Mike4 wrote:

UncleEbenezer wrote:

johnstevens77 wrote:Once when I had 5 executive chefs and their wives at home for lunch!

john

Blimey, even in my youth I couldn't've eaten that much at one sitting!

Was it WC Fields who once said "I like children but I can never manage a whole one"?

My recollection of the WC Fields quote is "I like children ... roasted."

Following bluedonkey,s reccomendation we have now rustled up a hairy bikers apple pie and it,s in the oven as we speak.

We halved the recipe since the hairy bikers have rather large appetites!

feder1 wrote:Following bluedonkey,s reccomendation we have now rustled up a hairy bikers apple pie and it,s in the oven as we speak.

We halved the recipe since the hairy bikers have rather large appetites!

Marvellous, I can smell it from here.

Does anyone else here have a different memory of "pie" and "tart"? When I was growing up, we had apple tart. A more cosmopolitan adulthood has taught me that strictly it was a pie not a tart. A pie encases the whole filling whereas a tart has an uncovered top. Maybe it's akin to "dinner/tea" vs "lunch/dinner".

bluedonkey wrote:Does anyone else here have a different memory of "pie" and "tart"?

A pie is a chart whose radius and circumference are in proportion, whereas a tart tends towards sexually promiscuous. With chips.

Cream then custard, or custard then cream?

bluedonkey wrote:

feder1 wrote:Following bluedonkey,s reccomendation we have now rustled up a hairy bikers apple pie and it,s in the oven as we speak.

We halved the recipe since the hairy bikers have rather large appetites!

Marvellous, I can smell it from here.

Does anyone else here have a different memory of "pie" and "tart"? When I was growing up, we had apple tart. A more cosmopolitan adulthood has taught me that strictly it was a pie not a tart. A pie encases the whole filling whereas a tart has an uncovered top. Maybe it's akin to "dinner/tea" vs "lunch/dinner".

I've been down this avenue before. I think a pie should have a bottom and a top, I agree that a tart is open on the top. Is a quiche a tart? What about a flan? Or those unbottomed pub pies which only have a puff pastry top and come in an individual pot? Then there's the occupation pies - shepherds', admirals' and cowboy.

I came across a recipe for tarte tatin using Chantenay carrots when trying to decide what to do with a bag of them in my weekly veggie box delivery.

Herewith:

https://tasteoffrancemag.com/recipes/ch ... rte-tatin/

Made it last night in my Emile Henry tarte tatin (a very underused Christmas gift from about a decade ago):

https://www.hartsofstur.com/emile-henry ... A8QAvD_BwE

delicious. Would recommend either.

Eb.

Thanks Eboli for that interesting tarte carrotin.

We shall make that soon.

It,s apple strudel tonight.

Ideal is apple pie and custard, and cream . And ice cream wouldn't hurt.

I once rejected custard in a pub because I specifically asked for it "warm" and it came piping hot.
They changed it, but I wonder if they spat in it!

Later, I felt guilty at being so obnoxious and vowed not to be so beastly again. The only time I felt justified in conplaining after that was on being given a glass of flat champagne in the Dorchester - my fault for not ordering a bottle, you might say!

Arb.

bluedonkey wrote:Does anyone else here have a different memory of "pie" and "tart"? When I was growing up, we had apple tart. A more cosmopolitan adulthood has taught me that strictly it was a pie not a tart. A pie encases the whole filling whereas a tart has an uncovered top. Maybe it's akin to "dinner/tea" vs "lunch/dinner".

We had apple pie, ie with a pastry lid on top, and often quite juicy underneath. Vs a tart which AFAIR was a blind-baked pastry base/sides into which apple was added and baked, a drier/firmer output. The former was more straight-forward and 'British'. The latter being open and visible had to be prettier and I thought of it as more 'Euro'.