Written by Chris Saturday, 14 November 2009 00:00

Here's a delicious pastry dish. The Tarte Tatin, or upside-down cake, was purportedly created by accident at the Hotel Tatin in France. One of the two Tatin sisters who owned the hotel started making apple pie and left the apples cooking in a pan with butter and sugar for too long turning the butter and sugar into caramel. Thinking of a way to save the dish she put the pastry on top of the apples and placed the pan directly into the over. Once cooked, she served the dish to customers and they loved it!

This is a variation made with pears in much the same way.

Ingredients

• 4 firm comice pears
• 80g unsalted butter
• 100g caster sugar
• 120g puff pastry

Preparation

Peel the pears, cut them length-wise and remove the cores. Place them in water with a little lemon while you prepare the pastry.

Choose an oven-proof pan that will be used both for cooking on the stove and in the oven.

Roll out the pastry to the approximate size of the pan and about 4mm thickness. Place the pan over the pastry and use it as a guide to cut the pastry.

Rub the butter evenly around the pan and add the sugar. Place the pears in the pan with their rounded side down and place the pastry on top of them and tuck it in around the edges. Place the pan on a moderate hear and cook until the sugar bubbles up the sides and turn brown.

Now, place the pan into the oven at gas mark 4/180 degrees and cook until the pastry is brown or around 30 minutes.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool for over an hour. You might like to place cling-film over the pan once it is sufficiently cool. When ready to serve place onto a moderate heat and cook until the caramelised sugar starts to bubble up the sides again. Place a plate over the pan and turn quickly and carefully. Serve with cream or ice-cream.