Classic French Challenge - October

After last month's successful challenge with 10 entries, I'm looking forward to running another one this month. I'm also in France this week visiting my parents and this means that I will be able to bake my challenge entry in France with French ingredients. I'll be posting a round up of the September entries for choux pastry soon but as my parents live in a very rural part of France the internet connection isn't always very reliable so this might have to wait until I get back at the weekend. I also have to use a French keyboard which is very confusing as some of the letters are in the wrong place.

The challenge for October is Tarte Tatin.

You can make a savoury tart or a sweet tart and use whichever type of pastry you like. I will be using the tarte tatin recipe from Larousse Gastronomique Desserts Cakes and Pastries (given below) which has a shortcrust pastry base and you are welcome to enter using that recipe or a different one if you prefer.

Tarte Tatin recipe adapted from Larousse Gastronomique Desserts Cakes and Pastries

Ingredients

200g sugar

225g butter

800g apples

350g shortcrust pastry - made with 225g plain flour, 50g butter, 50g lard or vegetable shortening and 3 tbsp cold water (or use 100g butter)

1. Mix the butter and sugar together and spread over the base and sides of a 23cm tarte tatin dish or flameproof shallow round baking dish.
2. Peel and core the apples and cut into quarters or wedges if the apples are large. Cut the pointed ends off the apple pieces and arrange in concentric circles in the tin and used the trimmed off pieces to fill any gaps. Place the tin over a fairly high heat and cook until the butter and sugar form a golden caramel. The caramel will rise as it boils so remove from the heat to avoid boiling over and leave to cool until the apples are cold. 
3. Preheat the oven to 200C. Roll out the pastry into a circle 3mm thick and use it to cover the apples making sure all the edges are tucked in. Bake for 20-30 minutes until the pasty is golden.
4. Place a serving plate over the tin and invert the tin onto the plate so the pastry becomes the base. 

Challenge Rules

• Please use the logo on your post and tag the post with the label 'Classic French' and include a link to this challenge page and to Blue Kitchen Bakes.
• Please add your entries via the linky at the bottom, enter the name of your dish in the name box. If you don't have a blog or linky doesn't work then email your entries to bluekitchenbakes@gmail.com including the name of your dish, your name (or I will use the name of your blog), a photo, a link to your post and for non bloggers a brief description that I can use in the round up at then end of the month.
• If you're on Twitter you can tweet your links to @BlueKitchenBake using the hash tag #ClassicFrench and I will retweet any that I see
• I'm giving you the basic recipe, if you want to use it is as part of someone elses recipe then please credit the source 
• If you would prefer to use your own recipe for tarte tatin then that is also fine, this challenge is about celebrating French patisserie so I'm not going to be too strict. I personally will be using Larousse Gastronomique recipes for all challenges. If your recipe is from a book/magazine or website then please credit the source. 
• You can enter as many times as you want
• You can enter your post into other challenges as long as it fits in with their rules
• The challenge will run from the 1st to the 28th of each month and I will publish a round up as soon as I can before the next challenge starts
• New challenges will be announced on the 1st of each month
• Above all have fun and use this as an excuse to learn something new and get creative!