Tarte Tatin - Eleanor Crossland

www.elegantrosecakes.com

I made tarte Tatin. I've never made it before and was very excited as I love appley desserts and I love a challenge. Last autumn and winter our freezer was stocked with stewed apple and we ate it for breakfast, with chicken, with custard and yoghurt...

Anyway, back to the tarte Tatin. I cut a few corners and bought ready-made filo pastry from the supermarket which is so, so easy to use. It made the whole method so easy - I really recommend you use it. I had a few hiccups - well, I didn't have any butter so I substituted it with Benecol. I don't think this worked quite so well as it separated from the sugar during baking. Also, we had problems judging when the caramel was done - who knows?!

I chose to use my new spring-lock cake pan. Now this seemed like a good idea as it was the perfect size and would allow for easy release, but the caramel seeped out through the base of the tin, away from the tarte Tatin. Luckily, I had amazing foresight, and had placed the tin on a baking tray. This caught all the caramel and meant we could enjoy that separately (NB -it's REALLY hot when you eat it straight out of the oven, and if you leave it to set too much, it's tooth-breakingly chewy.

I was amazed by the layer of fat that floated on the hot sugar in the baking tray. Who knew that the Benecol and sugar would separate? I drained it off and we enjoyed the caramel by itself. In the end, I've gone onto a fat-free recipe, which tastes just as good and doesn't leak everywhere.

So here goes:

Tarte Tatin

Ingredients

1 pack ready-to-use Filo pastry
4 sharp Cox apples
100g soft brown sugar
Method

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and grease a 20 cm cake-tin (I use spring-lock).
Melt the sugar in a heavy-based, good-quality pan without stirring. After a short while it should start to brown and caramelise.
In the meantime, peel the apples and slice into 8 wedges. Arrange in the cake-tin. I do them in circles.
Open the packet of pastry and lay out. Cut out a circle which is about 4cm bigger than the cake-tin.
Pour the caramel over the apple layer.
Carefully lift the pastry circle and lay over the apples. Tuck the pastry edges under, fairly neatly but watch your fingers-the caramel will be very hot.
Bake for 30 minutes. Leave to cool for 10 minutes then carefully turn out onto a serving plate.
Serve with cream, ice-cream, yoghurt or by itself.

Black Forest Chocolate Roulade

A spectacular alternative to Xmas Pud, this roulade is full of flavour and will wow your dinner guests...

You'll need to leave the roulade in the fridge overnight to allow it to rest, so make sure you have this worked into your Christmas schedule.

5 Eggs

225g/8oz Caster sugar

180g/6oz Plain chocolate

3-4 tbsp Water

FOR THE FILLING

575ml/1pt Double cream, lightly whipped with 2tsp vanilla essence

2 tins Black cherries, drained and stoned

3tbsp Kirsch or Cointreau

Icing sugar for dusting

CHOCOLATE SCROLLS

100g/4oz Plain chocolate

Preheat the oven to 180 deg C/350F/Gas 4. Line a swiss roll tin with greaseproof paper and set aside. Seperate the eggs, beat the yolks with the sugar until the mixture is lemon coloured.

Melt the chocolate in the water over a gentle heat and when it is a thick cream draw the pan aside. Whip the egg whites into a firm snow and then add the chocolate to the egg yolk mixture.

Cut and fold the egg whites into the  mixture and turn it into the prepared tin. Place in the pre-heated oven for 10-15 minutes or until firm to the touch.

Have a clean tea towel wrung out in cold water. Take out the roulade, cool it slightly then cover with the cloth. (this prevents a sugary crust from forming). Leave it in a cool place for 12 hours or in the refrigerator overnight.

Lay a piece of greaseproof paper on a table and dust it with icing sugar.

Remove the cloth and turn the roulade out upside down on to the greaseproof paper. Strip the paper case off the roulade carefully and drizzle with Kirsch or cointreau. Spread with a layer of whipped cream and black cherries and roll it up like a Swiss roll.

To make the scrolls, place two baking trays in the oven on the lowest setting. Allow them to heat up and remove from the oven. Rub a 100g/4oz block of plain chocolate up and down each tray in even lines, so that it melts in a thin even coating. Leave in the fridge to set.

Before you start to make the scrolls bring the trays back to room temperature, use the edge of a fish slice and hold the tray with one hand and push the chocolate away from you at a 45 degree angle so it rolls up into a pencil shape. Leave in the fridge to set again and carefully remove. Decorate the roulade with the scrolls.

Lift it onto a serving dish and dust well with icing sugar.

Original recipe by Rachel Green. As featured in Good Taste Autumn/Winter 2009