Pudding Baking

Pot Luck Tarte Tatin

The pot luck part of the title refers to whatever (pretty much) is lurking in your fruit bowl. It’s a basic tarte tatin recipe, using up whatever fruit you have, lovingly drenched in caramel and pastry – marvellous.

15 minutes , plus resting time prep, 50 minutes cook

Serves 4

Ingredients

50g salted butter

100g caster sugar

Enough fruit to cover the base of the frying pan (you could use 1 banana, half an apple or pear, a plum and a tangerine or half an orange)

1⁄2 tsp vanilla paste

1 roll of pre-rolled puff pastry

Ice cream or double cream, to serve

20-cm diameter ovenproof frying pan

Method

Preheat the oven to 180℃/Fan 160℃/Gas 4. Chop up the butter into chunks and place in the fridge. Put the oven-proof frying pan over a medium heat and sprinkle a quarter of the sugar over the base.

Let the sugar dissolve and, once liquid, add another quarter of the sugar and let it dissolve. Gently shake the pan if you need to but do not stir with any sort of utensil!

Continue adding the sugar as it dissolves and turns a deep, golden amber colour, about 10 minutes.

Keep an eye on the sugar, and meanwhile, prep the fruit. Halve and stone any stone fruit. Peel and slice a banana into thick chunks. Cut and core an apple or pear into wedges. Peel and thickly chop up a tangerine (or orange).

Once the sugar has dissolved, let it come to a gentle bubble and then remove from the heat. immediately. Add the chilled butter and vanilla paste, then shake the pan well to melt the butter and combine.

Add the fruit, cut-side-down, on top of the caramel mix, nestling it all in so it is snug and tightly fitted, in a single layer. Press it down gently to settle in the caramel too.

Next, unroll the pre-rolled pastry on top of the frying pan and, working quickly, loosely cut around the edge.

Using the end of a spoon or fingers (watching you don’t touch the hot caramel), fold under the pastry edge, tucking it in down the side of the frying pan. Then, using a small knife, prick a few holes over the pastry so steam can escape easily.

Bake on the top shelf of the preheated oven for40 minutes, until the pastry is golden and the caramel is bubbling around the edge.

Remove from the oven and let it sit for 15 minutes, before inverting onto a serving plate and serving with ice cream or double cream.