Banana Tarte Tatin

I've been hunting around for a simple tarte tatin recipe to try out. Something thats quick and simple. I saw this one while I was browsing through Dhanggit's kitchen - one of the food bloggies I follow.

I like the idea of a flambée tarte tatin.. but wasn't really up to doing it at home. So I've changed the recipe a bit to exclude the flambée part, and also added in some cinnamon and vanilla essence.

This has to be one of the easiest and tastiest desserts I've done in a while. You can probably substitute the bananas for apples or pears. Although they will probably require a bit more cooking time.

Banana Tarte Tatin
originally adapted from this recipe at Dhanggit's Kitchen

• 2 frozen sheets of ready-made puff pastry (see notes below)
• 60g unsalted butter
• 150g caster sugar
• pinch of salt
• 1 tablespoon of lemon juice
• pinch of ground cinnamon
• 4 bananas, sliced diagonally
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 1 teaspoon of rum essence
  

Prehead oven to 180 degrees celcius. Thaw out the pastry a bit by placing it on top of a smaller bowl or cup. (see notes on pastry below)

In the ovenproof frying pan, melt the butter, add in the sugar, salt and lemon juice and stir until the sugar dissolves. Let the mixture sit and simmer for about 5 mins until a light caramel starts to form.

Layout the bananas over the caramel, let it cook for 3 minutes. Drizzle the vanilla and rum essence over the bananas. Sprinkle the cinnamon over the bananas. Remove from heat, then cover the caramel bananas with the puff pastry.

Make sure the pastry is tucked in well around the sides to seal in the contents. Prick the pastry a few times with a fork.

Place the frying pan into the oven and bake until the top starts to turn golden brown. This should take about 20-25 mins.

Don't worry about the corners, its not visable once its flipped.

Turn over the tarte tatin on to a plate and serve immediately with some vanilla ice cream. We had it with some homemade vanilla ice cream that was made the previously.

Notes:

• Flipping the tart tatine: Using two oven mitts, I placed a bigger plate over the saucepan, held it together and quickly turned it upside down. Then let it sit for a couple of minutes before removing the saucepan.
• I used Pampas Ready Made Puff Pastry (in sheet form). This is found in the frozen section at the supermarket. Just remove two square sheets and thaw out slightly. Then when the caramel is ready, place one sheet on top and fold the corners down towards the centre. Place the other sheet on top, and arrange it so the corners aren't directly on top of each other. Fold the corners in, and tuck the puff pastry sheet in around the pan, sealing in the caramel. Alternatively you can trim away the corners, but I didn't really want to discard away any yummy puff pastry. :)