Brioche Tatin

Not everybody is a chocoholic (I know I am not, even though I do enjoy a piece of dark chocolate once in a while) but I don't know anybody who doesn't love caramel and now that I have learned to make it the dry way (check out this post for a description of the method), I plan to make it much more often. I had two-day-old brioches on hand (that's actually what gave me the idea to make this dessert) but challah would work just as well or even slices of whole-grain pan bread which might have dried out a bit. Pan d'oro would be divine of course, but I can't imagine ever having stale pan d'oro lying around...

Add one or two apples and some sugar and you are all set for a very delicious and very romantic dessert. All things considered, why not say it with apples, this Valentine's Day? I know I will. But then I'll say it with chocolate too. Better be safe than sorry... ;-) I didn't weigh anything but here is what I used: 2 individual brioches, slightly dried out 1 and a half Golden Delicious apple 1 tbsp of butter (for the pan) 1.5 tbsp of dark brown sugar 6 tsp of granulated sugar After preheating the oven to 450 F, I peeled and sliced the apples thinly, buttered a 9" tart pan and dusted it with brown sugar before arranging the apple slices in a pinwheel on the bottom, then I set the tart pan in the oven for 10 minutes. While the apples were starting to bake, I sliced the brioches (not too thick not too thin, about 1 cm is fine) and set a small saucepan with a heavy bottom to heat on the stove. When it started smoking, I threw in one teaspoon of granulated sugar. It melted very fast, so I added a second teaspoonful and swirled the saucepan some. I progressively added the rest of the sugar, swirling constantly, sometimes taking the saucepan off the heat to slow down the coloring. When I figured I had enough caramel, I stopped, took the pan out of the oven, drizzled the caramel over the apples and arranged the brioche slices over the whole thing. I turned the oven down to 350 F.

The pan went back in the oven for 20 more minutes. When it came out, the brioche was golden and the smell was heavenly.

All that was left to do was to flip the tart over on a plate. It was actually easier to do that I thought it would be because most of the apples remained stuck to the bottom, which made it child's play to take them out with a spatula and arrange them prettily on the waiting brioche slices. Et voilà, a brioche Tatin!

If you like, you can serve it warm with vanilla ice-cream. But you don't have to as it is delicious on its own and at room temperature. The Brioche Tatin goes to Susan, from Wild Yeast, for Yeastpotting.