Titan's September Supper Club: Tarte Tatin

In September I was asked to take part in a new blogging challenge run by Titan Travel, called the Titan Supper Club. To raise awareness of their great travel deals, every month they host the supper club, inviting us all to take part in making one dish inspired by one of their travel destinations. For September, they chose an English/French fusion in the form of an Apple Tarte Tatin, and making the link to the launch of the latest series of the Great British Bake Off they chose a recipe from last year's runner up Brendan Lynch. You can find the full recipe here.

  

My Tarte Tatin waiting to be upturned

I will be honest and say that I was a little dubious about the recipe to start with, as it calls for strong bread flour in the rough puff pastry, and no less than 14 apples for the filling! It seemed a little excessive. Never the less, as part of the challenge is to follow the recipe to the letter, I carried on regardless.

The pastry dough came together as a very wet mixture, and again I wasn't sure that the quantities and method were entirely right, but I pulled the mixture together, formed it into a ball and wrapped it in clingfilm to refrigerate as instructed. 

The finished Tarte Tatin ready to be served

Low and behold, after resting in the fridge for an hour, the dough had a very smooth and elastic texture, score one to Mr Lynch!

The issues that I did have however were around the lack of detail in the recipe, no size of tin, or temperature for the oven were given. I don't own a specific tarte tatin dish, and used a large flan dish, however the lower lip allowed a lot of the juices and caramel to run over the side when cooking, and resulted in a HUGE oven cleaning operation the day after... 

Spiced Caramel Apples and Flaky Pastry

All this being said however, the proof really is in the pudding, and neither me nor Gary could fault the taste and texture of this dish, the spices were just right, and the rough puff pastry held firm under the soft fruits. We ate it hot with some Cornish Butterscotch Ice Cream and it was a serious delight on a cold rainy September day.

I really enjoyed taking part in the Titan Supper Club, now we just need to book a holiday! 

Served with Cornish Butterscotch Ice Cream

Disclosure: I received the cost of ingredients to make the dish featured in this post. All opinions expressed are my own. 

September's Feel Good Food Challenge

So I guess Summer happened then!? I can't believe that it's September already, and what's more, that this little blog is 1 year old today! Maybe that's because I didn't really understand what I was doing in the beginning, and didn't really find my stride until the beginning of 2013. Either way, here we are, and here is the forth Feel Good Food challenge already! If you haven't caught it yet, check out August's Ginger round-up here, there are 17 of the most varied recipes containing ginger, and each one is brilliant! 

This month, I wanted to mark the beginning of Autumn, and more importantly the beginning of the harvest season, as so much amazing produce comes into season at this time of year. The choice was huge to narrow down, but I knew I was looking for an ingredient that was in season, incredibly versatile, and of course has plenty of great health benefits.

The ingredient I chose is high in vitamin C, and packed with phytonutrients and enzymes that support the effective breakdown of glucose and complex carbohydrates, making it easier to regulate blood sugars, and ward off diabetes. Antioxidant properties are present, and recent studies also hint at properties that can help to prevent Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. It seems that the old proverb is correct, one of these a day will most certainly keep the doctor away! 

This month's challenge ingredient is...

APPLES

As always, the challenge rules are;

• Each month the new challenge will be announced on the 1st of the month, and recipes should be submitted by midnight on the 28th. 
• You can enter as many recipes into each challenge as you like, the more the merrier. Existing posts are welcome, as long as they contain the chosen ingredient and have been updated to include a link back to this challenge.
• Recipes can be your own or someone else's, but if you do use an existing recipe please credit the source.
• Posts must contain the Feel Good Food logo above, be tagged with Feel Good Food, and contain a link back to this site. 
• You can add your post using the linky tool at the bottom of this post, or alternatively email me a copy of the URL link to kickatthepantrydoor@gmail.com so that I know it is there, and I can include it in the round up at the end of the month. 
• If you are on Twitter, tweet me the link at @ThePantryDoor1, using the hashtag #FeelGoodFood and I will retweet as well.