A Tarte To Remember
The crowning achievement of Claire Saffitz's Dessert person book is her Foolproof Tarte Tatin. It's a technically demanding dessert broken down into multiple digestible steps. The components of the tart can be refrigerated and stored well in advance of the final assembly, providing bakers with the flexibility to start and stop as they wish. The finished tarte looks and tastes amazing, performing well above what home baking is thought capable of. Assembly as a whole is a well-paced experienced. I felt accomplished throughout, but safe that I could avoid fumbling the project wholesale.
The Gist
The tarte starts with cooking down peeled apples in solution of maple syrup, apple brandy, and cider vinegar. After storing the cooked apples, you reduce the remaining juices into a finishing glaze for later.
In the meantime, up to two days ahead, you can prep the puff pastry. Next is the caramel, taking 15 minutes to complete to a deep amber colour and 10 minutes to cool.
Upon final assembly, you bring all the disparate pieces together. You roll out the pastry, nestle the apples into the pan on the caramel layer, and lay the pastry on top. After baking the chilled tart, you flip it out of the pan onto a wire rack, glaze with the previously reduced juices, and serve!
The Devil in the Details
The recipe's most notable for all the stuff you're asked to store ahead of time. It can feel overwhelming to dedicate this much space in the fridge for apples, puff pastry, and eventually the assembled tart.
However, this fuss illuminates the fridge's utility as an active tool in the cooking process. It keeps the pastry from losing its discreet butter layers, it keeps the already-softened apples from breaking down past al-dente, and it holds the assembled tart in a frigid stasis for consistent baking. Far from a simple receptacle for leftovers, the fridge preserves sensitive ingredients that would otherwise degrade from time or temperature over the course of a recipe. This opens up your kitchen to accommodate a multi-step dish or two without needing to get it done in one sitting.
A Better Bare Minimum
I got a hint of this with puff pastry. While not mentioned in the tart recipe itself, completing the puff pastry recipe nets you two portions, one of which you can store for later. In future, plenty of pie and tart recipes get more approachable because the time needed to smush butter pieces and work layers has already been spent.
I've found similar time-savings with prepared ingredients such as tomato sauce and seasoned chicken thighs. Tomato sauce, made simply with ingredients like garlic, basil, and red chilli flakes, can be used in pasta, lasagna, and pizza as my appetite sees fit. If you season chicken thighs with only salt and pepper, you get a head start on any chicken entree you fancy, be it Korean Fried Chicken, panko-breaded cutlets, or pot pie.
The process of prepping, baking, and reflecting on a better tarte tatin means teaching yourself better habits. I'm glad the recipe has given me the agency to keep my options open so I can keep cooking fun. Since the tarte tatin, I've since taken opportunities to intentionally organise the fridge into a better tool. As a result, my week-to-week cooking has been characterised as much by spontaneity and flexibility as it has subsistence.
