Tarte Tatin Hand Pies

Aka Bougie McDonalds Apple Pies

Hello, Happy Friday!

How does a homemade McDonalds apple pie sound? Good? Well how about a bougie version, a tarte tatin hand pie? Sounds even better to me.

For the life of me I cant tell you where this craving started, but for some reason I became a little obsessed with making a compressed tarte tatin terrine recently (more on that shortly) and when thinking how to use the terrine the idea of using it to make a McDonalds apple pie lodged itself right in the back of my brain. It was one of those ideas, that once thought of needed to be made as soon as humanly possible.

Baked vs Fried

The first question I had was what type of pastry should I use? I haven’t had one of those apple pies in maybe 15 years and I think I’ve only ever had them once so my memory is foggy, but I assumed it was some sort of puff or flaky pastry, so I went with my trusty flaky pie dough. Judging  on how the pies worked when they were fried I think it is safe to say the pastry McDonalds use it not as light or as flaky as mine. Why? Well my pie dough is so flaky, so rich with butter, that when they puffed up in the fryer they actually ended up absorbing too much oil and becoming soft and oily, not really I was going for. When I tried baking them however, they ended up delightfully crisp, with shattering pastry and a really crisp texture. Exactly what I had in mind. So instead of making a pastry more appropriate for frying I stuck to baking them.

Terrine

This whole idea started with an obsession with wanting to make a compressed tarte tatin. If you haven’t heard of this technique before it's relatively simple concept. In a loaf pan you pour in a layer of caramel that hardens like glass and then atop this you layer many many thinly sliced apples. To finish you pour on a braising liquor which is made with lemon juice, sugar, butter, vanilla and salt. It is then baked for about an hour and once out of the oven it is compressed, a second loaf pan is sat on top and weighed down with baking beans or some canned food. This whole thing is then refrigerated overnight, when unmoulded you have a beautiful terrine made up of layers upon layers of thinly sliced apple that have caramelised giving a remarkably similar flavour to a true tarte tatin. As the terrine bakes the caramel melts and blends with the braising liquid, infusing the apples with that wonderful bittersweet flavour from a traditional tarte tatin.

Apples

When it comes to making a dessert like this, where apples are cooked for a long time, choosing the right apple variety is key. I can tell you from experience, using the wrong type of apple for a dessert can have disastrous results. On more than one occasion my boyfriend has, late at night on a Sunday, said he really wished we had apple crumble. With only Pink Lady apples on hand I have done my best, but the problem with apples like pink lady’s is that they don’t like to break down so they stay crisp and chunky, you need to cook them a little before adding the topping to help them soften a little. In a crumble you want chunks of softened apple, which is why Bramley apples are a popular choice because they are mealier and they break down quicker and easier under heat compared with crisp apples like pink lady’s. However, in this terrine recipe, this resistance to turning to mush is a desirable feature, the apples are baked for a long time and we want them to remain their shape and not become a pan of apple sauce. I recently judged the annual tarte tatin competition which the Galvin brothers put on at their London restaurant and the importance of choosing the right apple variety became incredibly clear. The tatins on offer varied massively in their texture, some were almost mush, becoming far too soft for a tarte tatin but some were still holding their shape with some texture remaining, yet fully cooked as a tarte tatin should be. Talking to the pastry chef the restaurant choose to use Pink Lady apples for the tatin, which they serve in the restaurant, because they have great flavour which isn’t too sweet and it is good at holding its shape when baked.

Is this process a little overkill for trying to replicate a McDonalds apple pie? Hell yes! Would I do it again? Absolutely. Firstly, the resulting pies are fantastic, wonderful pastry and a incredibly tasty filling. But secondly the terrine is a wonderful technique to learn that can be applied in so many different ways. The first time I came across the technique was from the brilliant French pastry chef Phillipe Conticini (who I think may have been the person to actually create the technique in the first place). He makes a very similar terrine but turns it out onto a base of caramelised puff pastry and surrounds it with a layer of hazelnut crumble for an incredibly elegant dessert. There is a restaurant in Australia that has had a dessert using this technique on its menu for over 10 years, they serve a slice of the terrine with burnt butter ice cream, butterscotch sauce and an oat crumb. The terrine itself could be the centre piece of many a dessert and whilst it takes some time to make, its not the most difficult of things to make.