Nutrition Heretic

Perhaps it was being so far away from the northeast for eight years, but last year, I was inspired by our visits to Charlevoix, a lovely region, an hour or so north of Quebec City along the St. Lawrence River. It was where we visited the retired older couple, who were our witnesses, when we eloped, but it also allowed me to get my French fix between language, culture and the food, of course. By extension, this led me to missing France.

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The result was making a French tarte tatin — a rustic inverted apple pie — with maple syrup instead of sugar as is still sometimes done in Quebecois cuisine. It made a nice option next to the sweet potato pie. A good friend from Paris was sitting to my left and approved it as did her son 🙂

One mistake I made was using a rough puff pastry, forgetting that the pie would be sitting for a while oozing it’s sauce into the pastry. After several hours like that, the crust was much tougher than it should’ve been. Instead, I suggest making a standard pâte brisée, like I do in my sweet potato pie recipe.

While it’s a very rustic dish in nature, it is typically made to have some semblance of visual appeal by layering the apples, which will eventually become the presentation side, in an orderly fashion. I typically see it served as meticulously uniform slices layered as if spooning the apple slice in front.

But I’m lazy. So I simply halved them.

I have a friend who just doesn’t give a *** and throws the slices in a huge mound that she evens out with the back of a spoon. Chaotic works too. Nature does chaotic all the time.

You do you.

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Traditionally, this pie is also distinguished from American apple pie by the lack of spices like cinnamon, nutmeg and clove. The French find our heavy handed use of such flavorings almost offensive. But if there are no French around, have at it.

Ingredients – The Dough

• 1 1/4 cup cold pastry or 00 flour
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup chilled butter, or 1/4 cup each lard and butter
• 1/4 cup ice water with optional teaspoon of lemon juice

How to Make The Best Maple Tarte Tatin Ever – The Dough

With your fingertips, toss together flour and salt in a medium-sized bowl. Spread flour out and grate your butter directly on top. If using lard, add it now in clumps and break into pea-sized bits as described in the sweet potato pie recipe.

When fats are evenly distributed, gradually pour in ice water. You won’t likely use all of it before the dough holds together without being too dry or sticky. Cover and refrigerate before rolling out since it’s easier to keep in the fridge in a ball, while you work on the next bit.

Ingredients – The Apples

• 3/4 cup maple syrup
• 4 Tbsp butter
• 8 or so medium apples peeled, halved and cored
• lemon juice, optional

How to Make The Best Maple Tarte Tatin Ever – The Apples

Boil syrup and 1 tablespoon of butter in a 10″ cast iron pan for about 10 minutes or until slightly thickened. Turn off heat.

While syrup is boiling, you can peel, halve and core your apples. Sprinkle with a tiny bit of fresh lemon juice to retard browning. This is optional.

Place apple halves, core-side-up in maple syrup. Leave a little space between outer apples and edge of pan. Dot with butter.

Roll out dough slightly larger than pan size. Tuck in around edges. That’s why you left yourself a little working room in the previous step.

Bake 30 min at 350ºF/175ºC/Gas mark 4 or until you can see the syrup bubbling along the sides and the crust nice and crisp.

Sweep the inner edge of pan with a rubber spatula to loosen pie in case it got stuck to the sides. Allow pie to cool until it is comfortable to handle. Don’t refrigerate because apples will be more likely to get stuck in the pan.

Cover warm pan with serving dish. Holding both sides around both the plate and the pan, quickly flip the pan over so the beautiful pie is displayed for serving.

Slice into wedges. Serve with whipped cream or ice cream, but it’s perfectly delicious without either of those.

This would also be yummy made with pears instead of apples. Might even be good made from turnips or daikon radish for an interesting appetizer. Although in that case, I would reduce the syrup considerably and top with dots of blue cheese and toasted nuts.

Hey, let me know if you’ve decided to make tarte tatin this holiday season and how it turned out in the comments below!