Apple Tarte Tatin

We all know what a Tarte Tatin is: an upside down apple tart, due to a mistake made by a sister Tatin... that's the short story. Now, the "Tatin way" is a popular way of creating tarts, like tomato tatin, cheese tatin.
So I have decided to make my first attempt today.. I have eaten many apple Tarte Tatin before, but never thought of doing it myself. There are my different recipes on the internet so it is hard to know which one to follow. I asked a friend of mine who makes great Tarte Tatin, and asked my Mum too. Here is my first attempt: it definitely needs to be more caramelised but for a first try, it's not bad and I can confirm it tastes good :-)

This is the recipe I followed:
Ingredients:
4 large granny smith apples
75gr butter
75gr brown sugar
zest of half a lemon
Puff pastry for 1 tarte

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Melt the butter and the sugar together, until it thickens and caramelises, add the lemon zest.
Peel the apples and cut in halves (or smaller peices). Cook the apples for 3-4 minutes in the caramelised mix.
Place the apples in a tart dish or tatin dish, and cover them with the puff pastry. Cook for 20min until the pastry is golden brown.

Grapefruit Tart

And to finish lunch today, I made a grapefruit tart. I've used the same recipe I used to make the Lemon Tart, just replacing the lemons with grapefruits. This time it is a pink tart, as tangy as the lemon one..
I also made shortcrust pastry but it's a little bit on the thick thigh (still eatable)... Enjoy :-)

Ingredients:
Shortcrust pastry (home made or already made) or a plain tart pastry
Juice of 2grapefruits and 1 lemon
Zest of 1 grapefruit
40 gr butter
4 large eggs
200 gr caster sugar
165 ml cream

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Blind bake the pastry for 20-25 min and an additional 10 min without the weights/ beans.
At the same time, prepare the filling: lightly whisk the eggs in a bowl with a fork. Add butter, cream, grapefruit and lemon juice, grapefruit zest and sugar to the bowl. Place the bowl on the top of a sauce pan au bain marie (double boiler). The water needs to be simmering and not boiling. Use a heatproof spatula and stir constantly to prevent the mix from sticking at the bottom of the bowl. You need to stir until the filling thickens enough to stay on the spatula (it normally takes 20-25min). Strain the filling into the bakes pastry case ( to remove lumps), smooth the top and bake for 20min.

The tart needs to cool down and can be served at room temperature or slightly cold.

My Mum's Flamiche aux Poireaux (Leek Tart)

Flamiche aux poireaux is a typical dish from my region in France, Picardy. It has one main ingredient, leek.
I can not count how many times I have had it at home (Mum's is always the best), and then made it myself. At some point I loved it so much that I made it every Sunday for dinner.
You can find many different recipes of the Flamiche aux poireaux online, but none of them are like the one I use. For me, the prefect leek tart should not have any bacon, cheese and in the preparation, nothing like eggs and cream as this would make it a quiche. I only use leeks, flour and milk and it make a delicious creamy tart!
It is way better to use a homemade dough, enough for 2 tarts, because the tart should be covered with pastry too. I usually cover mine only with stripes of pastry because I think it is too much dough (but that's my preference). I served it with chicory, which is also something we eat a lot at home :-) It's a home day!

Ingredients:
3/4 leeks
milk
2 tbsp flour
salt, pepper and optional: paprika or nutmeg

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Clean and cut the leeks very thin. Cook them slowly in a large saucepan until they get translucent and soft. You can leave a lid on and let them cook on low heat for 20 min. Once they are ready, add the flour, enough to absorb all liquid in the pan and from the leeks. Then add milk little by little and stir. The mixture should thicken. Add more milk and stir again.. repeat until you get enough mixture to cover your tart dish. Season to your taste. Another option is to add some Gruyere with the leeks and let it melt all together.
Line a tart dish with brisee pastry. Pour the leek mix onto it. Cover the leeks with another pastry (or not).
Bake for about 40-45 min, until the tart edges become golden brown. Serve right away. Bon apetit. Enjoy this "north of France" dish.

Lemon Tart

At the moment, I don't work and I have plenty of time to bake and blog new recipes. I also have the opportunity to bake dishes that take a big more time and effort.
Today I am making one of my favourite tart: a lemon tart. I know i can also share it with my friend Laeti because it's one of her favourite too :-)
We like it very tangy and tart, so if you want to repeat the recipe less tangy, simply put less lemon juice and less lemon zest.

Ingredients:
Shortcrust pastry (home made or already made) or a plain tart pastry
Juice of 6 lemons
Zest of 3 lemons
40 gr butter
4 large eggs
200 gr caster sugar
165 ml cream

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Blind bake the pastry for 20-25 min and an additional 10 min without the weights/ beans.
At the same time, prepare the filling: lightly whisk the eggs in a bowl with a fork. Add butter, cream, lemon juice, lemon zest and sugar to the bowl. Place the bowl on the top of a sauce pan au bain marie (double boiler). The water needs to be simmering and not boiling. Use a heatproof spatula and stir constantly to prevent the mix from sticking at the bottom of the bowl. You need to stir until the filling thickens enough to stay on the spatula (it normally takes 20-25min). Strain the filling into the bakes pastry case ( to remove lumps), smooth the top and bake for 20min.
The tart needs to cool down and can be served at room temperature or slightly cold.
Enjoy