Tarte Tatin Part 2

Now – Let’s tackle the pastry side of the recipe.  If you want to make it from scratch, that is.  How do we know which flour to use, and when?

Flour is in truth, fine powder milled from different seeds including wheat.  When adding a few grain types and milled together, it makes tasty whole wheat flour.  All wheats are not created equal, though.  Some flour have high gluten which is contributed by the presence of the wheat germ.  Gluten could make a cake tough. Therefore, for dessert purposes, usually pastry flour is best.  But All-purposed flour can be used both to make bread and cake and easily available so just choose the best option for you.

Back to making the dough.  One of the secrets to make a pastry flakey is to separate the flour and butter.  Use cold butter and grate to tiny pieces.   4 or 5 tablespoon of water added is enough to mix them together.  After balling up the dough, keep refrigerated until required.  When doing so, ensure you spread some flour on the board before rolling the dough flat.

A tip that I took from Jamie Oliver in Jamie At Home is that, when rolling out the dough, you may want to use a baking paper sheet large enough to cover the flattened/rolled out dough and roll on top of the baking paper instead of directly on top of the dough.  This is so if you accidently make a tear/break off a piece of the dough while rolling/lifting it, rolling on top of the baking paper would mend it easily and would leave no traces of having been broken off or having suffered from tearing.

Fancy This:

This was what I heard from Chef Manu Feildel of the TV show Ready, Steady Cook in Australia.  I have no idea if he was pulling our legs.  He told Pete Everett the show host, that the tarte tatin was named for the sisters Tatin who were baking an apple tart for the King of France.  While lifting the tart from the oven or something like that, one of the sisters accidentally dropped the tart on the floor.  Not having enough time to do another, the Tatin sisters lifted the fallen tart off the floor, and serve them upside down.  Hence the name that goes with the style of presentation.