Recently, I was lucky enough to be one of the 200 people to attend a Monday Atwater dinner. In this case the theme was French Cuisine. As a lover of any sort of French fare, I was hoping for a feast of steak and frites, baguettes with decent cheese, coq au vin, ratatouille, savory crepes, chestnut soup, boeuf bourguignon, and pate. And, after listening to friend’s raving reviews of the Local Foods Night, Greek Night, and Chinese Night in Atwater, I was anticipating quite the experience. Yet sadly, I was a bit disappointed when I arrived. Perhaps it’s my culinary snob coming through, but I found that the fare was nothing more than typical dining hall offerings with extra butter and cream slopped in. And, while the food was tolerable and sometimes tasty, I was frustrated with Atwater’s interpretation of such an avant-garde world cuisine. In reality, it seemed that the dining staff had more fun renaming the dishes with fancy French words than actually putting effort into the production.
I consumed the greasy potatoes lyonnaise and iceberg lettuce salad without much complaint, but when I got to the dessert I was wishing for something more. I have quite the sweet tooth, and when dreaming up French delicacies I picture rich chocolate mousse, creamy crème brulee, little Madeleine cookies, buttery chocolate éclairs, and scrumptious miniature profiteroles. And so, as I walked up to the tray with high hopes of some sort of tasty pastry or tart to redeem the meal, I was disappointed to see bland squares of dry chocolate cake. To add insult to injury, the label underneath pathetically read “German Chocolate Cake”. Last time I checked my geography, Germany and France were not the same place.
And so I walked away from the cake fuming, deciding that I needed to compensate for Atwater’s attempt at a French meal by creating the most delectable pastry possible. For me, this meant the tarte tatin, perhaps the most rich, buttery, and delicious of all French desserts. The tarte tatin translates to apple tart in English, and consists of a layer of caramelized apples in a buttery pastry crust. Sounds simple at first, but after scouring the Internet for recipes it seemed that I had a bit of a difficult task on my hands. The pastry had to be caramelized then flipped artfully from the skillet to a plate. Could be trouble.
Yet I was determined, and so began the process of “borrowing” apples from the dining hall, snatching one or two at each meal in order to avoid looking suspicious. I swiped some butter, asked the chefs in Proctor for some flour and sugar (under the pretense of baking a cake for a friend’s birthday), and got to work. After two hours of melting butter, mixing in sugar, whipping up a crust, and tossing in lots of crisp apples, I had created a dish that I believed was worthy of a true French feast. And yes, it did have an absurd amount of butter and perhaps too much sugar to be healthy, but it tasted like every French dessert fantasy I’ve had. And I didn’t even mess up that much when flipping it. Success.
Tarte Tatin (adapted from Smitten Kitchen)
Crust
1 stick plus two tablespoons cold salted butter (5 ounces) cut into cubes and chilled in freeze
1 tablespoon sugar (optional)
1 1/2 cup flour
3 to 6 tablespoons ice water
Filling
7 medium apples
1 stick (4 ounces) salted butter
1 cup sugar
Prepare Crust:
Pre-mix the flour and sugar in the food processor container, and cube the butter on a plate. Then put the dry ingredients and the butter in the freezer for a while.
After you’ve chilled everything for at least 20 minutes, add the cubes of butter to dry ingredients and pulse until the largest pieces of butter are no bigger than tiny peas.
Add the ice water a little at a time, processing just until the dough starts to come together into a mass. Turn out onto well-floured surface and pat together into a ball. Don’t handle the dough too much, or the warmth of your hands will start to melt the butter. Flour the top of the dough and use a rolling pin to quickly press and roll the dough out into a 10 to 11-inch circle. Keep turning the dough as you do this to make sure it doesn’t stick to the rolling surface. Throw more flour underneath the dough if necessary. Check the crust to make sure it’s just big enough to cover the top of your tarte tatin pan. Move the crust onto a piece of parchment paper or onto a floured rimless baking sheet, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate.
Prepare filling:
Preheat oven to 375° F.
Peel, core and quarter the apples.
Over low heat in a heavy, ovenproof skillet measuring 7 to 8 inches across the bottom and 10 to 11 inches across the top, melt the stick of butter. Remove from heat, add the sugar and stir until blended.
Arrange apple quarters in pan, first making a circle inside the edge of the pan. Place them on their sides and overlap them so you can fit as many as possible. Then fill the center of the pan; you may have some apple left over. Keep at least one extra apple quarter on hand–when you turn the apples over, they may have shrunk to the extent that you’ll need to cheat and fill in the space with an extra piece. This one piece won’t get quite as caramelized as the other pieces, but don’t worry–it will still cook through and no one will notice.
Return your pan to the stovetop on high heat. Let boil for 10 to 12 minutes or until the juices in the pan turn from golden in color to dark amber. Remove from heat. With the tip of a sharp knife, turn apple slices over, keeping them in their original places. If necessary, add an extra slice of apple to keep your arrangement intact. Return to the stovetop on high heat once more. Let cook another 5 minutes and then remove from heat.
Place the crust on top of the apples and brush off excess flour. Tuck edges under slightly, along the inside of the pan, being careful not to burn fingers. You can use your knife.
Bake in oven until the top of the crust is golden-brown in color, about 25-35 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool on a rack about 30 minutes.
Run a sharp knife along the inside edge of the pan. Place a plate or other serving dish on top of the pan and quickly flip over the whole pan so the Tarte Tatin drops down onto the plate. Peek under the edge of the pan to see if the Tarte came out. You may need to bop the bottom of the pan with your potholder-encased fist for this to happen. If there are any pieces of apple left behind in the pan or otherwise out of place, carefully put them back where they are supposed to be. Voila! C’est magnifique! A beautiful TREAT!
Tart Revenge
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