Apple Tarte Tatin

Step 1

On a clean work surface, tip out the flour and push into a mound. Make a well in the centre and put the cubes of butter into it. Begin to combine the butter and flour by drawing flour inwards into centre with your fingertips. This is a delightful part of the process – enjoy it!
Once the flour and butter is roughly combined, add some of the cold water and bring the pastry mix together with your hands to form a dough. Add more water until it binds together.
Wrap the dough in clingfilm and leave to rest in the fridge for 30 mins.
Dance, read a book, drink a cup of tea, do whatever it is that will keep you occupied for half an hour!
Lightly flour the work surface and roll out the pastry into a wide rectangle. Fold up the shorter ends like a book so that one end goes over the other – this will give you three layers altogether. Turn the pastry by a quarter and roll out again. Fold up again in the same way, then rewrap and leave to rest in the fridge for 20 mins.
Improve your dance/read another chapter.
Repeat the folding and rolling (I actually got a bit carried away and folded and rolled a few times between rests – and nothing disastrous happened) and return to fridge for the final time.
You can now either leave the pastry in the fridge for another day, freeze it for use another week, or leave it to rest for the same amount of time, then use it straight away.
Sorry, no dance practice this time – you need to make the filling!
Preheat the oven to 200C and grease a baking tin (this is not the traditional way, but as I didn’t have an ovenproof frying pan, I figured it would work). Place the baking tin in the oven to warm.
Put the sugar and water into the pan. Turn on the heat and leave to slowly caramelize – keep your eye on it and tilt the pan around occasionally. Meanwhile, chop the apples into thin slices. As soon as the sugar begins to turn a light brown colour, remove from heat and add a little butter to it. Mix well to make a glossy, golden caramel sauce.
Remove the baking tin from the oven and pour in the caramel. Arrange the apple slices in the tin, making sure that you fill all the gaps. Dot a little butter onto the apple slices.
Roll out the pastry until it is fairly thin, then cut out a circle large enough for the baking tin. Put it over the top and tuck the edges into the tin. Prick with a fork a few times.
Bake for 20-30 mins until the pastry is crisp and golden.
Quickly and carefully (remember there is hot caramel underneath!) turn out the tart onto a serving plate. Cut into slices and serve with cream or ice cream.