Today is a special day for Tuesdays With Dorie: we’re celebrating the group’s second anniversary! January 5th is actually always a special day for me – it’s my birthday! In honor of the group’s anniversary, we were given the choice of two different desserts: a Tarte Tatin or Cocoa Buttermilk Birthday Cake. Though it was quite serendipitous that there was actually a dessert with the word “birthday” the very week of my birthday, I chose to make the tarte tatin since I had been eager to try one for a while. Besides, a while ago I absolutely had to have a copy of the book Sky High: Irresistible Triple-Layer Cakes and guess how many cakes I’ve made from it? If you guessed zero, you’re correct! Anyway, I selected a cake from it and Josh will be making it as soon as we manage to work through the (seemingly endless) backlog of desserts in our kitchen. I suspect that will be some time in February.
I was a little intimidated by the tarte tatin; it just seems like such a glamorous French dessert that you assume it must be terribly fussy and complicated. I don’t think I let the apples caramelize quite as long as I should have. I harbor a terrible fear of burning caramel and figured that the apples would attain more color once they had baked in the oven, but next time I would definitely leave them on the stove a bit longer. But, you know, the apples bathed in a whole stick of butter and ¾ cup of sugar, so the dessert was pretty much guaranteed to be good, even if not thoroughly caramelized. Based on the price and the word “French” on the box, I thought I had purchased fancy puff pastry at Whole Foods, but it was actually pie dough. It was still very buttery and flaky, though, and perfect with the apples. The December issue of Bon Appétit had a pear tatin with Brown Sugar-Balsamic Swirl Ice Cream, so I made the ice cream to accompany the tarte tatin (click here for the link to the ice cream recipe).
This recipe rated an 8 for Deliciousness and a 3 for Effort, giving it an EDR of 2.66. A huge thank you to Laurie of Slush for starting the group and, more importantly, keeping it going for two years. I am happy to have found a community of people who love baking as much as I do, and each week I am amazed at what a creative, talented, and inspiring group it is. You can find the recipe for the Tarte Tatin here and the recipe for the Cocoa Buttermilk Cake here on Laurie’s site. And be sure to stop by the TWD blogroll to see how the other bakers celebrated the group’s anniversary.
That’s last week’s chocolate cheesecake, which I made a little late and really did not have much to say about. Josh did enjoy it, though.
11 comments:
Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Margot, Happy Birthday to you!! Hope you had a great day :)
Your tarte looks wonderful! I really wanted to try it, but didn't have the right size pan so I went with the cake (also tasty!). Thanks for sharing the ice cream link too - that sounds delicious. I can't even begin to tell you the number of cookbooks I "had to have" that haven't been opened yet. Glad I'm not alone!
Beautiful tarte!!! Nice job!
tarte, ice cream and cheesecake- all sound wonderful. Hope you had a great birthday!
Happy Birthday! Celebrating it with tarte tatin and homemade ice cream sounds perfect!
Happy Birthday Margot!!! This was my first Tarte Tatin, too, and I was surprised at how simple it really was after reading it through. I absolutely loved it. I also got Sky High recently, and have yet to make anything from it either! Too much to bake, too little time... My birthday is next month, though, so I think it will finally get used... That ice cream sounds amazing. I am definitely taking note of it.
Happy Birthday! Your tarte looks lovely. And homemade ice cream - shat ould be better. Hope you had a great day.
Hippo Birdie 2 Ewe, Hippo Birdie 2 Ewe, Hippo Birdie Deer Ewe, Hippo Birdie 2 Ewe! (You knew I would be different, right???) Hope it was happy! Your cake looks great and the tarte tatin is the best...wow wow wow. You can now put that one on your resume! I thought it would be fussy, too, so I was surprised how easy it was.
I probably wouldn't have made this if I didn't have that pie crust in my freezer. I was just feeling lazy, but man! what a delicious dessert. Your cheesecake is so cute! Happy Belated Birthday, my friend!
Happy birthday (sorry I'm a day late to the party!) I think your tarte Tatin looks terrific. I had way too much caramelization on my apples (OK, OK, they were burned) so yours looks perfect to me. I can't wait to see which cake Josh is baking for you.
The degree of caramelization is the tricky part of this dessert, I guess. I went for the dark color Dorie describes only to find burned spots on my apples when I turned it out. Still yummy though. And I hear you on the cake/cookbook front. I chose a cake from Modern Baker for my birthday in June and there was just too much of the sweet stuff around so I never baked it!
Thanl you so much Margot for being there for me while I was gone... it was very sweet and thoughtfull of you!
A very happy new year to you and your family... and many more of those amazing little fried divinities!
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