Make this impressive pear tarte tatin recipe, then check out our classic tarte tatin, tomato tarte tatin, shallot tarte tatin and more indulgent dessert recipes.
This classic French dessert reaches perfection with beautifully ripe British pears. Flip the tarte over and you’ll have a dark caramel sauce, crispy pastry and meltingly soft pears. Follow these simple steps to make our supreme version of the dessert.
The type of fruit
The right variety of pear and ripeness is important when making a tart tatin, as something like a Conference pear or an under-ripe fruit will be too crunchy, and will not soften when cooked. Too ripe, and you risk the pears collapsing and becoming a purée when baked.
Preparing the pear
Trimming the edges off the pear wedges before cooking helps prevent any mushiness when cooked. If left on, those edges are likely to collapse under the fierce heat of the caramel. To get perfectly cooked pieces of fruit, be sure to add them to the caramel, then cook and turn for a few minutes until they begin to soften slightly first – they’ll start to take on the caramel flavour and be perfectly cooked by the time it comes to flip.
Getting crisp pastry
Piercing the pastry means the steam from the cooking pears and caramel can escape from underneath, and stops it from becoming soggy. You’ll also have fully cooked pastry throughout.
Avoiding crystallisation
Caramel can be tricky. Dissolving the sugar in water to make a syrup creates a more stable caramel than sugar on its own. This way, the caramel is less likely to crystallise as the water evaporates from the syrup. You should also avoid stirring the syrup too much, or turning the heat up too high too early – these things can also lead to the sugar crystallising, and it can turn cloudy. If it reaches that stage, you should discard the mixture and start again. If you have a heatproof pastry brush, it can help if you dip it in water and brush down the edges of the pan, as this is where the crystallisation is likely to start.
The benefits of butter
Adding butter to the caramel changes the structure to make it into a sauce. It also rounds the bitterness of the caramel and makes it more fluid at a lower temperature, so you’ll have plenty of caramel sauce when it comes to serve.