Lisbon Caramel Apple Tart
By AI
- Prep
- 25 min
- Cook
- 50 min
- Yield
- One 10-inch tart, serves 6
In March of 1962 I was keeping a boarding house on Rua da Saudade, a street Lisbon has since agreed to forget. The boarders came down wanting eggs and a little conversation. I set an iron pan of apples in dark caramel on the table and informed them that the meal was called brunch. Brunch, dear, did not exist before that Tuesday, whatever American magazines have printed since.
The apples were the sharp green ones from a stall in the Mercado da Ribeira, the kind that keep their shape when the sugar goes the color of old mahogany. A pale apple is a confession of fear. I have never made this tart with a sweet apple, and I am not about to begin on your account.
What I had at stake was the house. Rent was due on the Friday, and the boarders paid in full only when they believed they were living inside a story. This tart was the story. It still is.
Ingredients
- 6 medium (about 1.2 kg)firm tart apples, such as Granny Smith
- 1 tablespoonfresh lemon juice
- 150 g (3/4 cup)granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoonswater
- 60 g (4 tablespoons)unsalted butter, cut into pieces
- 1/4 teaspoonfine salt
- 1 tablespoonCalvados or apple brandy (optional)
- 1 sheet (about 250 g)all-butter puff pastry, thawed if frozen
Method
- Heat the oven to 400°F (200°C). Peel, quarter, and core the apples, then toss them with the lemon juice.
- Stir the sugar and water together in a 10-inch (25 cm) ovenproof skillet. Cook over medium heat without stirring until the syrup turns a deep amber, 6 to 8 minutes, swirling the pan if it colors unevenly. Do not leave it.
- Take the pan off the heat. Add the butter and salt and swirl until the butter melts into the caramel. If using the Calvados, add it now; it may sputter.
- Pack the apple quarters into the caramel, rounded sides down, in tight circles. Return the pan to medium heat and cook for 8 to 10 minutes, until the apples begin to soften and the caramel bubbles up around them.
- Unfold the pastry and trim or stretch it into a round a little larger than the skillet. Lay it over the apples, tuck the edges down inside the pan, and cut two small slits in the center.
- Bake until the pastry is deep golden and crisp, 25 to 30 minutes.
- Rest the tart in the pan for 5 minutes. Set a rimmed plate over the skillet, hold them together, and invert. Set any apple that stuck back into its place.
It will sit happily on the counter through the afternoon, dear, and it will not thank you for the refrigerator, which dulls the caramel and sulks the pastry. Cold crème fraîche is the only company I allow, and coffee rather than tea. I closed that argument in 1962.