Flipping Naked!

First of all, the picture above doesn't do this dessert (or breakfast) justice. At least I remembered to photodocument it. Flash bulb and plastic wrap- oh, so elegant. This food wasn't ready for its photographic debut, but time was short and daylight was obscured by heavy cloud cover.

The French have probably already discovered my "Carmel Apple Brioche Tatin". I am sure that I bring no news to them. That, or they'd think it a ridiculous bastardization of their traditional tarte tatin. Or a waste of enriched yeasted dough. I, however, was feeling quite clever today when I replaced the usual puff pastry or pie crust dough with a version of brioche dough I like. I was inspired by a variety of cooking-related programs recently that went on about apple pies in great length... even the NPR segment on apple pies had my mouth watering, among their lip-smacking, pregnant pauses, and graceful "mmmm" noises. I could practically smell the apples cooking.

So I took a field trip over to People's Co-Op and bought a 5-lb organic apple assortment: the pinova sonata, honeycrisp (a favorite), granny smith (classic baking apple), and an arkansas black apple, which I haven't tried yet, and couldn't bear to include in the pie because its main appeal to me is that alluring deep red skin. It looks like a plum.

The brioche dough... see my next post for the brioche in full-detail. I was a mad experimentalist today, I made enough dough for 3 loaves of bread plus this crust.

With the dough made, I set to making the apple brioche tatin. I basically followed the recipe from the Moosewood Recipe Book of Desserts for Carmel Apple Tarte Tatin.

Start with the caramel: 1 c. sugar + 1/3 c. water. Dissolve the sugar in the water on medium heat in a saucepan on the stovetop. Stir constantly until the mixture is clear, this takes about 5ish minutes, you'll start to see lots of bubbles. Stop stirring and turn the heat up to brown the sugars. You want it to turn honey-brown in color. I swirled it occasionally to check for color under the bubbles. When it's browned (don't let it get too dark- your caramel will taste burned), take it off the heat and work on your apples.

Pick 5 favorite apples. I peeled 3 grannies, one honeycrisp, and one pinova. I wanted a combo of tart and sweet. Core and quarter them. Melt 2 T. butter in a cast-iron skillet, I added the seeds and inner flesh of about 2" of a vanilla bean pod that I split open lengthwise, put it in with the butter. Once the butter is melted, arrange the apples in the pan in a circle starting at the outside of the pan, then fill in the middle. Cover and cook about 8-10 min until apples begin to soften.

While the apples cook, stir 1/2 c. sour cream into the caramel.
Note: I have made this twice now- last time was about 2 yr ago. Both times I managed to screw up the caramel bit. First time: burned the caramel. This time, let caramel get too hard. I couldn't stir in the sour cream. I've learned to have 2x as much sour cream as is necessary. It's also important to let the caramel cool a bit- if you don't, the caramel doesn't thicken properly and you don't get a nice, gooey caramel. It's still tasty, but more like a nice sweet sauce.

Back to the apples: when you deem them ready, sprinkle with 1/4 tsp salt and juice of 1/2 lemon (1.5T). Pour the caramel on top of the apples. Spread the dough out gently with your fingers to be about 2" larger in diameter than your pan. Lay it over the apples and tuck the overhang into the pan, down the sides.

Bake in oven 20 min, 400F

Let sit 5-10 min, then invert onto a plate.

Careful with that inversion... it's not that hard, but I wound up with some hot and sticky caramel running down my leg. Could my shamelessness be a blessing in disguise? Rushed, I was flipping still dripping from my shower. At which point I thought, "baking in the buff IS a good idea!"

Safety first.

Serving note: Next time, depending on how the caramel turns out, I would like to try browning the top of the apples with the kitchen torch. It would look lovely with a few raspberries on top there. And it needs fresh whipped cream. Though ice cream certainly wouldn't suck. But a nice creamy sauce would be the perfect complement.

The outcome: A good twist on the tarte tatin- nice because it's not as buttery and heavy as puff pastry of pie crust. The brioche dough is slightly eggy, not too sweet or too rich. It also gives the tart good structure. The leftovers make a good breakfast- I stored it in the fridge overnight and toasted a slice of it briefly under the broiler.