This perfect autumn season dish is a wonderful way to wow guests with all the colour and fragrance of quinces.
Chestnut Puff Pastry – Makes 1.2kg puff pastry (enough for 8-10 Tartes Tatin)
300g plain flour
200g chestnut flour
500g firm butter
Pinch salt
250ml iced water
Method
1. Remove butter from refrigerator and cut into small cubes 1 hour before using.
2. Sift flours into a mixing bowl and make a well in the centre.
3. Place butter and salt in the well; use fingertips to rub the flour and butter until a coarse crumb consistency has formed.
4. Add the water a little at a time, gently working the dough until it comes together to form a firm dough flecked with butter.
5. Place the dough on a lightly dusted work surface and roll it away from you to form a long rectangle approximately 20cm x 40cm x 5mm thick.
6. Fold the shorter ends upon each other to form 3 layers (a book fold).
7. Rotate the pastry 90 degrees and roll it away from you again to form a long rectangle, same size as before.
8. Fold the pastry once again as described in step 6, wrap in cling film, and refrigerate for 30 mins
9 Repeat steps 7 to 8 once.
10. Your dough is now ready to use.
Note: Chestnut puff pastry can be kept in the refrigerator for two days – or up to a week in the freezer.
Poached Quince
4 cups water
3 cups sugar
Juice of 1 lemon
2 cinnamon quills
4 star anise
4 cardamom pods
8 quinces, peeled and cored, cut into quarters
Method
Place all ingredients except quinces in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Add quinces, reduce heat and poach until soft.
Tarte Tatin Method
Use 10-12cm diameter cast iron baking pans.
2 tbsp butter, per pan
2 tbsp brown sugar, per pan
Preheat the oven to 180C.
1. Roll out chestnut puff pastry to a large rectangle, 3mm thick.
2. Cut pastry circles to fit your pans.
3. Add butter and brown sugar to each pan. Arrange poached quince quarters in a circular pattern around the pan.
4. Place chestnut puff pastry on top of quince pieces and bake in oven for 15-20 minutes until pastry is puffed and golden.
To Serve
Turn out each tarte tatin onto individual plates, drizzling remaining caramel sauce from pans over each tarte. Dust with icing sugar and serve with buttermilk ice-cream (recipe below).
Buttermilk Ice-cream
Makes approximately 1 litre
2 cups cream
2 cups buttermilk
1 vanilla pod, seeds scraped
10 free-range egg yolks
350g caster sugar
Method
1. In a saucepan add cream, buttermilk, vanilla pod and scraped seeds and bring to a simmer to allow vanilla to infuse.
2. In a mixing bowl add egg yolks and sugar. Whisk until well combined.
3. Slowly pour cream and buttermilk mixture into the bowl of eggs and sugar while continuing to whisk.
4. Return the whole mixture to the saucepan and bring to a low heat, continuing to stir with a wooden spoon or spatula. This ‘tempers’ or stabilises the egg yolks, but be careful: if the temperature is too hot the yolks may scramble.
5. The mixture should thicken enough to coat the back of the spoon or spatula.
6. Remove from heat and strain to remove vanilla pod.
7. Refer to your ice-cream machine directions to churn the mixture into ice-cream. (Or use food processor method, see below.)
How to complete your ice-cream using a food processor
1. Pour cooled vanilla or flavoured ice-cream base into a large ziplock bag.
2. Lay the sealed ziplock bag on a flat tray and place in the freezer; chill until completely frozen.
3. Remove the bag of frozen ice-cream base from the freezer and, while still inside the locked bag, smash the contents on a kitchen benchtop until the frozen ice-cream base has shattered into small pieces.
4. Remove the shattered frozen ice-cream base from the ziplock bag and place in a food processor.
5. Blitz until smooth and creamy.
6. Remove the smooth, blitzed ice-cream from the food processor and transfer to an ice-cream container of your choice. Store the finished ice-cream in freezer.
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