Maple Tart Tatin Recipes

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
• Roll puff pastry out on a lightly floured surface to 1/4-inch thickness; place in the refrigerator.
• Melt butter in a 9-inch cast iron skillet over medium heat; stir in brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg and cook and stir until sugar dissolves, about 5 minutes. Stir maple syrup into brown sugar mixture; cook, stirring, until mixture begins to bubble. Remove skillet from heat.
• Place one pear half, cut side up, into the center of skillet. Cut remaining pear halves in half again; arrange pear quarters around the center pear, cut sides up.
• Place skillet over medium-low heat; cook pears, basting with syrup mixture, until they begin to soften, about 5 minutes. Remove skillet from heat.
• Remove puff pastry from refrigerator; place pastry over pears, tucking edges of pastry around pears inside skillet.
• Bake in the preheated oven until pastry is puffed and golden, about 20 minutes; allow to cool for 5 minutes. Place a serving plate over skillet; invert to remove tart (skillet will still be hot). Serve warm.

Steps:

• Unfold puff pastry on a lightly floured surface. Using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll into a 12" square about 1/8" thick. Using a 12" plate as a guide, cut out a 12" round with a sharp paring knife. Transfer pastry round to a baking sheet; cover with plastic wrap and chill until ready to use.
• Preheat oven to 425°F. Swirl butter and maple syrup in a 12" heavy ovenproof skillet over medium heat until butter melts. Sprinkle sugar over, evenly coating bottom of skillet. Add apples, cut side down; increase heat to medium-high and cook until sugar melts, occasionally swirling apples in pan, about 5 minutes. Reduce heat to medium and cook, continuing to swirl apples in pan, about 5 minutes longer. Flip apples (rounded side down), and cook, swirling apples occasionally, until syrup is thick and golden brown, 5-10 minutes longer.
• Cover apples with pastry round, tucking in edges of pastry. Bake until pastry is light golden brown, about 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 375°F; bake until pastry is puffed and deep golden, about 20 minutes longer.
• Let tarte Tatin cool for 15 minutes. Invert a serving plate over skillet. Using oven mitts, firmly hold plate and skillet and invert tarte onto plate. Remove skillet; rearrange apples if needed and scrape any caramel in skillet over. Serve warm or at room temperature with ice cream.

Steps:

• On a floured surface, roll the pastry out a bit to even out the any folds and make it a touch thinner. Cut a 10-inch circle of dough from it, prick it, and keep it chilled.
• Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
• Place a heavy 9 or 10-inch metal cake pan on the stove on a large burner and turn the heat onto medium. Add the butter and warm to melt it. Add the maple syrup and vanilla bean and bring to a boil stirring a bit. Remove the vanilla bean. Take the pan off the heat and place the banana slices in the pan decoratively in concentric circles to cover the whole bottom of the pan. Place the pastry over the bananas to cover them, tucking the pastry down along the inside of the pan. Later, during baking, the pastry will shrink to fit the pan.
• Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until the pastry is golden brown. Let cool in the pan 30 minutes then warm the bottom of the pan on the stove for a minute and turn the tart out onto a serving platter.

Steps:

• At least one day before you plan to cook the tart, prepare the apples: Slice off the bottom of each apple so it has a flat base. Peel and quarter the apples. Use a small sharp knife to trim the hard cores and seeds from the center of each quarter; don't worry about being too neat. Transfer to a bowl and refrigerate, lightly covered, for at least one day or up to three days. (This key step reduces the amount of liquid in the tart. Don't worry if the apples turn brown; they will be browned during the cooking anyway.)
• When ready to cook, heat oven to 375 degrees (or 350 if using convection). Thickly coat the bottom of a 10-inch heavy ovenproof skillet, preferably nonstick metal, with butter. Sprinkle sugar evenly on top.
• Cut one piece of apple into a thick round disk and place in the center of the skillet to serve as the "button." Arrange the remaining apple pieces, each one standing on its flat end, in concentric circles around the button. Keep the pieces close together so that they support one another, standing upright. They will look like the petals of a flower.
• On a floured surface, roll out the puff pastry about 1/8-inch thick. Place an upside-down bowl or pan on the pastry and use the tip of a sharp knife to cut out a circle about the same size as the top of your skillet. Lift out the circle and drape gently over the apples. Use your hands to tuck the pastry around the apple pieces, hugging them together firmly.
• Place the skillet on the stovetop over medium heat until golden-brown juice begins to bubble around the edges, 3 minutes (if the juices keep rising, spoon out as needed to remain level with pastry). If necessary, raise the heat so that the juices are at a boil. Keep cooking until the juices are turning darker brown and smell caramelized, no longer than 10 minutes more.
• Transfer skillet to the oven and bake 45 to 50 minutes, until puff pastry is browned and firm.
• Let cool 5 minutes, then carefully turn out onto a round serving plate. (Or, if not serving immediately, let cool completely in the pan; when ready to serve, rewarm for 15 minutes in a 350-degree oven before turning out.) If any apples remain stuck in the pan, gently use your fingers or a spatula to retrieve them, and rearrange on the pastry shell. Cut in wedges and serve warm with heavy cream, crème fraîche or vanilla ice cream.