Fig Tarte Tatin

Figs are such an autumnal fruit to me, that it’s odd to think of them at their peak in the middle of summer. I’ve been waiting since, well, autumn, to make a fig tart, and when I stumbled upon two pounds of fresh black figs at Costco this weekend for less than $7, I lept on the opportunity.

The second harvest figs are the only ones I can eat raw enjoyably (and, as it would seem, our sugar gliders are also quite found of), but they only really shine when they’re cooked somehow, bringing out all their potential and accentuating their natural sugars. Traditionally, a “tarte tatin” (pie’s version of the upside down cake) is made with apples, but any fruit that is complimented with caramel works well here (bananas and pears especially), so it’s safe to ignore tradition.

A tarte tatin is also traditionally made with puff pastry, and while I’ve nothing against store bought puff pastry, I didn’t have any on hand. I decided to make a food processor crust instead of my usual pate brisee, because the kitchen is simply too warm to be doing much work on the countertop. It was perfectly acceptable (as you can see in the picture, that’s some serious rise on the crust, which was rolled out to about 1/4″ thick, so I was hardly concerned about a lack of flaky goodness), but I like doing things by hand when I can.

I was a little concerned about this whole process because it was the first time I ever baked something in a nonstick pan. I know that it’s perfectly safe, but there’s some sort of horror in my mind where the Teflon magically transforms in the indirect heat and somehow I end up with an easyglide stomach that fails to digest its contents afterward. Not surprisingly, this didn’t happen, though somewhat surprisingly, some of the figs did stick to the pan while I was trying to flip it over. I just strategically placed them back where it looked as though they fell out and covered up the blemishes with ice cream like any reasonable man would.

Tarte tatin kind of sounds complicated, but rumor has it that it was actually created by accident (leaving apples on the stove for too long and so forth), so how hard can it be? Especially with a couple cheats, like store bought crust, the hardest part is remembering that pie is not breakfast the next day. Admittedly, I forgot this myself today, but luckily, I ate the whole thing, so I can’t make the same mistake again tomorrow. Crisis adverted.

Fig Tarte Tatin

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter, frozen and cut into cubes
• 1/4 cup shortening, frozen and cut into cubes
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons ice water

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 pound black figs, stemmed and halved

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees with the racks positioned in the lower third of the oven.
2. To make the pastry: combine the flour, butter, shortening and salt in a food processor with the blade attachment and pulse a few times, just to mix. Quickly, in a steady stream, add the ice water with the food processor running. Stop the food processor, remove the lid and squeeze the dough together – it should just stick together between your fingers, if not, add a touch more water – then ball it up, wrap it in a large piece of plastic wrap and flatten into a disk, refrigerating until the figs are prepared.
3. To prepare the figs, place the sugar and butter in a 12″ nonstick ovenproof skillet over medium heat and cook attentively until it all melts down and becomes a dark caramel, then remove from the heat and carefully stir in the vanilla.
4. Working carefully, arrange the sliced figs closely together, cut side down in the caramel sauce, until the bottom of the pan is covered.
5. Remove the pastry from the refrigerator and, on a lightly floured surface, roll out into a circle roughly an inch wider on both sides than the pan (a 14″ circle). Place the pastry over the pan and gently tuck the edges into the pan to make a rimmed edge. Place into the oven and bake until the crust is golden brown, about 35-40 minutes.
6. Soon after removing the pan from the oven (or the caramel will harden and you’ll have a hell of a time removing the contents), wearing oven mitts or using dish towels or what have you, place a plate on top of the pan and quickly invert the pan so that the delicious caramelized figs look up at you on that plate and beg to be smothered in a dollop of vanilla ice cream and be eaten immediately (and do so.)

If the whole caramelizing sugar thing freaks you out a little bit, swap out the white sugar for brown and just cook with the butter until combined into a sauce. The flavor and texture will be different, but it will serve the same purpose. To further simplify things, you could also roll out frozen puff pastry in a pinch and avoid the whole crust making process altogether.

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