Guest chef: Mimi Thorisson

Guest chef Mimi Thorisson shares her go-to recipe for the French classic, Tarte Tatin.

I never got to meet Plantia, the former mistress of our country house in the Medoc region of France. But villagers who remember her from when they were children say she was a woman with a deep love of food. Her cooking may not have been adventurous, but it was always of the highest standard using the finest produce around. Her signature dessert was this classic Tarte Tatin.

PLANTIA’S TARTE TATIN

For the sweet tart dough

1½ cups (180g) plain flour, sifted, plus more for rolling

1/3 cup (65g) caster sugar

Pinch sea salt

1 large egg yolk

100g cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces, plus more for the pan

For the apples

½ cup (100g) caster sugar

1 vanilla pod, split lengthways, seeds scraped out and reserved

90g unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

900g apples, peeled, cored and quartered

Crème fraîche, for serving

To make the dough, put flour in a large bowl and make a well in the centre. Add sugar, salt and egg yolk and mix slowly with your hands. Add butter and mix well until you have a smooth, homogenous dough. Form it into a ball, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour, or preferably overnight. Preheat oven to 180°C and butter a 23cm ovenproof frying pan (a cast iron skillet is perfect). Mix sugar with vanilla seeds and sprinkle over the base of the skillet; scatter butter over sugar, then tightly pack apples in the skillet in a circular fashion, flat side down. Cook over medium-high heat until liquid forms and starts to bubble, about 3 minutes. Reduce heat and continue to cook until the juices turn a golden caramel colour, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the dough to a thickness of 3mm. Cut a round of dough slightly larger than the top of the skillet. Drape over the apples and carefully use your fingers to tuck the dough between the apples and the rim of the skillet. Transfer to the oven and bake until the pastry is golden brown, about 40 minutes. Allow to cool for 5 minutes then very carefully remove from the skillet by placing a large serving plate on top and inverting the tarte tatin onto the plate. Serve with crème fraîche. Serves 6

Mimi Thorisson writes cookbooks and a blog called Manger, and presents the TV series La Table de Mimi. Recipe from French Country Cooking by Mimi Thorisson (Hardie Grant, $50).