I must confess that I’d never made a tarte tatin before trying this, in fact, I don’t think I’d ever eaten one! I’d seen them made on lots of tv programmes and figured, “how hard can it be?”. Well, for someone, like myself, who seems to be totally incapable of making caramel, it is quite a challenge! Fir everyone else, probably not so much.

I was kindly sent a tarte tatin dish by Mermaid Bakeware and decided that I would try turning some gooseberries that were starting to look a little past their best into a tarte tatin. The dish is a lovely solid one, made from a heavy, durable material and is a perfect size for a family of four. It can be used on the hob, under the grill or in the oven – very versatile!

Now, what you are about to see is not pretty! I can assure you that the gooseberry tarte tatin tasted absolutely delicious, but it does look like a 3 year old made it. Actually, is it too late to tell you that Faith really made it… No? Ah, ok then! It gives me a good excuse to practise a bit more then.

Ingredients

For the pastry

200g plain flour

50g butter, chilled and cut into cubes

25g caster sugar

enough cold water to bring it together

For the filling

125g caster sugar

200g gooseberries

50g butter, cut into cubes

What to do

1. To make the pastry – sift the flour into a large bowl and add the butter. Rub the butter into the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs.

2. Stir in the sugar then add enough water to make the mixture into a soft, but not sticky, pastry. Add the water slowly to prevent the pastry from becoming sticky.

3. Wrap the pastry in clingfilm and refrigerate for 30 mins – 1 hour.

4. Preheat the oven to 180°C.

5. Remove the pastry and roll out until it is around 5mm thick and is approximately 5 cm bigger than your tarte tatin dish.

6. To make the gooseberry filling – wash and prepare the gooseberries.

7. Sprinkle the sugar over the bottom of the tarte tatin dish and heat until the sugar has dissolved and turned into a lovely, brown caramel. Resist the urge to faff around and stir it!

8. Add the gooseberries and cook for 2-3 minutes – you want them to start to cook but not to turn to mush.

9. Add the butter to the fruit and caramel mixture then carefully lay the pastry over the top.

10. Carefully, tuck the pastry under at the edges. Remember, the dish and the caramel will be burning hot so it is a good idea to use something other than your fingers to do this – maybe the handle of a wooden spoon or the back of a spoon.

11. Bake for 25-30 minutes until the pastry is cooked through and golden in colour.

12. Turn the tarte tatin out onto a plate very carefully to avoid burning your arms/fingers/feet etc.

13. Admire how pretty it looks *cough* and serve warm with ice cream/cream/custard or just on its own.

When I saw all the sticky caramel, I was really worried about cleaning the dish afterwards but I needn’t have worried. All the left of stickiness simply slid off in the warm soapy water and it was perfectly clean again. I do love bakeware that is easy to clean!

Disclosure: I was sent a tarte tatin dish free of charge to try and review.