Cheat’s Plum Tarte Tatin | Puff Pastry | Recipe | Gig House Kitchen

Chewy, flaky, sweet, sour and buttery, a delicious dish for day or night. Enjoy it hot or cold…

Photo courtesy of Gig House Kitchen on YouTube

Who doesn’t love biting into a delicious, buttery pastry in the morning, or enjoying a tasty, fruity dessert dripping with vanilla ice cream?

The Cheat’s Plum Tarte Tatin can go from day to night just by warming it up or enjoying it cold. A dish that is simple enough that a novice chef can do it but impressive enough that your friends will wonder how.

This Cheat’s version of a traditional French Tarte Tatin cuts out some of the difficulty as it can be done completely in the oven using a baking dish, rather than the proper way, which is caramelising apples on the hob in a pan and baking them in the oven covered with puff pastry.

If you’ve ever thought you couldn’t make puff pastry, I’m telling you that you can. It’s incredibly easy and fun. However, if you’re feeling a little bit intimidated by it, you can just buy puff pastry from the shops instead (I won’t tell anyone, I promise).

What you need for this recipe

• Mixing bowl (metal or glass is fine)*
• Round-bladed knife
• Glass heatproof baking dish*
• Rolling pin*
• Baking parchment
• Digital kitchen scales*

You will also need a variety of plates, small bowls, and cutlery on hand for this recipe to weigh ingredients into, portion spices, etc.

Watch the video

Video courtesy of Gig House Kitchen on YouTube

Ingredients

Puff Pastry:

• 200g Butter (Block)
• 250g Bread Flour
• 120–150ml Cold water
• 1tsp salt

Filling:

• 1 punnet underripe plums
• 50g Soft Brown Sugar
• 50g Butter

Oven temp: 180ºc / 356ºF / Gas Mark 4

Raise temp to: 200ºc / 392ºF / Gas Mark 6

Method

Puff Pastry:

• Place cold butter block between two sheets of baking parchment, and using rolling pin, carefully flatten the butter to around 1–2cm thickness. Be careful to keep the block rectangular and of a uniform thickness and shape.
• Put the butter into the fridge to chill until needed (minimum 20 minutes)
• Put flour and salt into a mixing bowl and stir with a round-bladed knife
• Gradually pour in the cold water until the flour forms a shaggy dough that just about comes together (you might need more of less water), it should seem be more dry than sticky.
• Pour the dough out onto the worktop and work it together just enough to create a smooth mass, which you will need to let rest in the fridge in a floured bowl, covered with cling film, for around 20 minutes to let the dough relax.
• When the dough is rested, pour it out onto a floured worktop and roll the dough to a long rectangle (approx. 0.5 x 1 the length of your rolling pin) with the shortest edge facing you.
• Drop the flattened butter into the middle 1/3 of your dough and fold the top and bottom 1/3s over the butter. Press out as much air as possible before sealing the open edges gently with your rolling pin.
• Give your dough 1/4 turn, making sure everything is well-floured, and roll the dough out as before (approx. 0.5 x 1 the length of your rolling pin) and then fold the top and bottom 1/3s over the middle again (letter fold). This is your first lamination complete.
• Poke a little divot into the pastry to mark your first lamination, then wrap the pastry in baking parchment and put it in the fridge on a plate to rest for at least 20 minutes.
• Remove the pastry from the fridge onto a floured worktop and roll it out again as you did in the previous steps, fold into 1/3s (letter fold), and poke two divots before returning the pastry to the fridge. This is your second lamination complete. Let the pastry rest in the fridge for at least 20 minutes.
• After resting, complete the rolling steps one last time for your 3rd and final laminating step, then wrap the pastry and return it to the fridge for at least 1 hour, or until needed.

Filling:

• Pre-heat your oven to 180ºc / 356ºF / Gas Mark 4
• Halve and pit the punnet of plums and leave them to the side ready to use.
• Sprinkle soft brown sugar into the bottom of the baking dish, enough to cover the base, then drop small cubes of butter evenly spaced apart over the top of the sugar.
• Bake the sugar and butter in the oven for 5–10 minutes until they have melted together, but be careful not to burn the butter.
• When the butter and sugar has melted, take the baking dish out of the oven and very carefully place the plum halves into the baking dish cut side down, these will be visible after the pastry is turned out so make sure to place them in neatly so it looks nice.
• Return the baking dish to the oven and cook for 10–20 minutes or until the plums have started to soften but haven’t become mushy. They should still be reasonably firm to touch (but be careful because they are hot!)
• Remove the baking dish from the oven and turn the heat up to 200ºc / 392ºF / Gas Mark 6.
• Take the chilled pastry dough from the fridge, and on a floured worktop, roll the dough out to the appropriate size to cover your baking dish. You might not need all of the dough here, so save anything that isn’t used as this can be frozen and used another time. (Work quickly here as you don’t want the butter to melt too much).
• Gently wrap your pastry around your rolling pin to help you roll it out over the plums, carefully pushing any loose pastry into the corners of the baking dish so the entire top is covered (careful as you do this).
• As soon as the pastry is placed, put the baking dish back into the oven and bake for 10–20 minutes, or until the pastry is golden brown all over.
• Allow the tarte tatin to cool down for at least 30 minutes before tipping it out onto a board for serving (the bottom of the baking dish should be warm but not hot). The tarte tatin won’t stick to the tin so you have lots of time to work with it, and you can always warm it up again after you have turned it out from the dish.

Final comments

Be extremely careful when working with hot sugar as it will stick to your skin and give you bad burns if you do not use proper caution.

NEVER turn out hot sugar, wait until the dish is mostly or completely cooled before turning it out.

Puff Pastry can be frozen easily. Once you have finished laminating the dough, wrap it in clingfilm and it can be kept in the freezer for up to three months. To use, remove from the freezer and allow to defrost overnight on a plate in the fridge.

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