You might have noticed that I’m part of a group of food bloggers who do a monthly “This Book Makes Me Cook”. We normally publish our posts on the first Saturday of every month, but didn’t realize that would be the 1st of May this time!
So I’m a little late with this post, but better late than never.
This month’s pick to read and cook from was “Julie and Julia”, which was also released in a movie version late last year. I won’t bore you with my usual whine about how I couldn’t lay my hands on the book. I did, however, watch the movie a few months back, and am going to use that as the basis for my inspiration to cook this month.
I know Julia Child is a big name in some parts of the world, but I’d never even heard of her until a Daring Bakers challenge where we baked French bread using her recipe. Of course, my bread was a disaster and that’s no reflection on **Julia Child.
The title of the book “Julie And Julia – 365 days, 524 recipes, 1 tiny apartment kitchen” pretty much says it all. It is the real life situation of Julie Powell who wrote a blog mostly to chronicle her cooking all the 524 recipes from Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” in 365 days!
Depressed with temp jobs as a secretary, she finally secures a permanent job she dislikes and decides to bring some excitement in her life by cooking her way through her mother’s copy of Julia Child’s book in a year. She also keeps a blog diary of her disasters and triumphs in the kitchen and how the book affects her life on the whole.
The movie on the other hand, tries to marry Julie Powell’s blog posts/ story with a large part of Julia Child’s life, especially her book which she wrote to introduce and teach Americans to cook French food.
This is a personal opinion. I found the movie entertaining and could relate to a lot of Julie’s emotions as a food blogger being one myself. But she also comes across as a very stressed out and emotionally needy person for whom, the only meaningful thing in life seems to be an almost single minded desperation in cooking from Julia Child’s book. That cookbook seemed to rule Julie’s life and while I don’t hold this against her, I do find it difficult to relate to.
Of course, Julia gets into learning to cook French food and writing a book about it because she needs “something to do”!
For me, it is ultimately Meryl Streep as Julia Child who saves the movie from being mediocre. It is easy sometimes, to almost believe that it is Julia Child herself in the movie.
Given that Julie Powell chose to cook her way through Julia Child’s Mastering The Art Of French Cooking, I decided to pick out one recipe from that book. One recipe I have been wanting to try is the Apple Tarte Tatin. This seemed a good opportunity to do so. You may want to see Juliamaking her Tarte Tatin here
An Apple Tarte Tatin is a French upside down apple tart, where the apples are caramelized in butter and sugar and then baked.
Most of the recipes for Tarte Tatin call for a lot of butter, and Julia Child’s love for butter is legendary. I am consciously trying to cut down on the fat in my baking and so searched for a “healthier” Tarte Tatin recipe.
I eventually found one by David Lebovitz, whose fan I am. I have found his recipes very doable and he also gives “cup” measurements for ingredients which are great for my scale-free kitchen!
This open faced tart of caramelized apples on a thin sheet of flaky pastry is what David Lebovitz calls his “diet” version of the classic Tarte Tatin. I didn’t change much in this recipe, other than using salted butter and sweeter apples. I also substituted 1/4 cup of the total flour with whole wheat flour.
This recipe (and most others) calls for a cast iron skillet in which the apples are caramelized, and the tarte tatin is also baked in this. The only cast iron thing I have in my kitchen is a “tava” which is not exactly shaped to make a tart.
So I used a 9” pie-dish which meant I also used 1 apple less than in David’s recipe.
I would suggest a couple of things to keep in mind while making this Tarte Tatin. The pastry is quite thin and so tends get soggy from the apple and caramel, if kept for long. So plan to serve it soon after you’ve made it.
If you need to keep it for till about an hour before serving, it might be a good idea to keep the Tatin as it is (upside down in the dish) and turn it out on the plate just before serving. This way the pastry crust will still be crisp.
David’s “Diet” Apple Tarte Tatin
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 1/2 tsps sugar
- 2 tbsps salted butter chilled , cut into xbd u201d cubes
- 3 tbsps water ice cold
- 7 apples firm (I used Royal Gala)
- half lemon a juice of
- 1 tbsp butter
- 1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
Instructions
- Combine flour, salt and sugar in food processor or standing mixer. Add the 2 tbsp butter and process till the butter is in pea-sized chunks. Stir in water and mix just until dough holds together. Shape the dough into a disk and wrap in plastic wrap.
- (This dough can be made up to 3 days before using.)
- Quarter, peel and core the apples. Add lemon juice and toss to coat the apple well. Keep aside.
- Melt the 1 tbsp of butter in 10u201d cast-iron skillet. Stir in the brown sugar and take the skillet off the heat. Arrange the apple quarters in the pan rounded side down, tightly packing them in overlapping concentric circles. Cram them in as they'll cook down.
- Cook this over medium heat for about 20-25 minutes. Do not move or stir apples while cooking, but gently press them down with a spatula as they soften.
- While apples are cooking, roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface into a 12u201d circle. If you live in a warm tropical climate, sometimes, rolling the dough can be difficult. The dough tends to get a little soft and sticky. Do not be tempted to add more flour as this makes the pastry tough.
- Place the dough between two layers of parchment, plastic film or foil and roll it out. If the dough circle seems too soft to handle, refrigerate for about 1/2 an hour. The slowly peel of one layer of the papr/ foil and using the other layer place the dough cirsle on the apples and peel off the remaining layer of paper/ foil.
- Tuck in the edges of the pastry. Bake tart on upper rack of oven, for about 35 to 40 minutes until golden brown.
- Remove from oven and invert a baking sheet over tart. Carefully flip both skillet and baking sheet simultaneously. Lift off skillet, loosen any apples that may have stuck, and reunite them with the tart.
- Serve warm with a scoop of ice-cream or frozen yogurt. This Tarte Tatin serves 6 to.
Rach says
You have a lovely blog 🙂
Hari Chandana says
Delicious !!!
Zita says
Always love a classic dish, your tarte tatin looks amazingly delicious:)
Apu says
Great looking pie there, Aparna!!
PJ says
Aparna, the apple tart looks great! I would prefer your version over the butter riden version of JC 🙂 Movie is good, particularly by the Meryl Streep.
Shabs.. says
Loved ur version of tart tatin…i have seen versions around using puff pastry as well….i want to bake tis one day….it looks so classy!….Btw, i loved the pic for cutlets…..soooooooooooooooooooo beautiful!
Trissa says
Aparna, honestly, this looks like the most gorgeous tarte tatin I’ve seen. Am not sure who would be prouder – Julia Child or David L!
Panchpakwan says
1st time here..lovely baked recipes..Sure i will be coming here again and again..
Rachana Kothari says
The apple tart looks great!!!
sra says
Meryl Streep lived the role, didn’t she? I really enjoyed that movie. I like Tarte Tatin, have read about some restaurant in Paris that serves the ultimate Tarte Tatin!
Curry Leaf says
Looks Great Aparna.I have never seen the movie but from the trailers it seems Meryl Streep made it exceptional.Loved the book and from your review came to know how different it is from the movie.Ofcourse even we could feel the pressure and not the passion of cooking the dishes.Julie never lets the attention being diverted from her and Julia is actually a shadow.I too am baking low fat these days
Maaya says
looks amazing. not that simple to bake but looks yummy
Mallugirl says
u hit the nail on the head abt julia the young one! I am always skeptical about the caramelized apples.. had oen bad experience with too much caramelization but maybe its time i tried it again. the second photo has a charm.
jayasri says
Wow, look at your tarte tartin, I wanted to try them, as I have not tried any tarts at all!!, They look out of the world, so beautiful, I agree with you I too did not really enjoy the book but the movie was good!!, I wanted to see more of julia and her recipes in her book I was quite disappointed!!, Lovely click too aparna, and the spicy Tomato Jam is so yummy too!!
Avanika [YumsiliciousBakes] says
I enjoyed the movie, but as a young girl, not as a foodie. It was adapted for the general audience, and I get why one would do so.Your tarte tatin looks delicious, I’ve been wanting to try them ever since the TWD’ers made them!
Aparna says
Thank you. Have to say again, we really liked this tatin. David Lebovitz hasn’t failed me so far! 🙂