Tarte tatin

It's September and we have plenty of apples on our tree.  What better way to use these than to make the classic French Tarte tatin?  This worked really well, in Suzanne's words "Seriously good tarte tatin. Looks like I'll have to get the step-ladder out!"

Ingredients
7 medium apples - I used ours, they're closest to Coxes Orange Pippin
200g white caster sugar
50g butter
pinch of salt
1 packet of ready-made, ready-rolled puff pastry

Method
Peel, halve and core the apples, then cut them into largish slices (I got 6 slices per apple). 

Put the sugar into a 20cm deep sided non stick baking pan (ours is the double skinned variety, this probably helps with the caramelization) with 50ml water and stir to wet the sugar evenly, then cook over a high to medium heat until golden.  This takes some time and you have to be careful not to burn the caramel.  I adjusted the heat quite a bit and also moved fro one burner to another to make sure there was an even caremelization.  Also, take it off the heat slightly before it's done and stir it as it will continue to cook.

Stir in the butter, and a pinch of salt and combine well, then carefully arrange the apples pieces in the pan, round-side down to fill as much of the pan as possible.  Remember, the caramel will be seriously hot so be careful.

Put the apples and caramel back back on the heat and cook for 5 more minutes, then take off the heat and allow to cool to warm..

Pre-heat the oven to 200C. Cut out a circle slightly larger than your pan, then put the pastry on top of the pan and tuck in the edges around the fruit. Bake for about 30 minutes until the pastry is golden, then remove from the oven.

Allow to cool for 5 minutes, then place a plate, slightly larger than the pan, on top and then, very carefully, using oven gloves, invert the tart on to the plate.  This is best done quickly, trust me!

Best served with crème fraîche.