Dairy-Free Tarte Tatin

Pastry… sans beurre?! (Butter in French)

C'est impossible!

C'est un sacrilège!

I say, peut-être (perhaps) non.

Those of us requiring lives without dairy shouldn’t necessarily also be punished by being denied the gloriousness of French pâtisserie.

Can we make a classic fall French pastry without dairy?

Can we even streamline it in some ways, without losing the integrity of the original?

Un, deux, trois…

Method

Recipe Source:

1) Pastry: Prue Leith’s Pear Tarte Tatin

2) Fruit and Caramel Sauce: Sally’s Baking Addiction Pear Tarte Tatin (Made Simple)

Dairy-Free Modifications:

I used a vegan stick margarine instead of butter. This time, I used Country Crock Plant Butter Stick with Avocado Oil.

That’s it! There’s just a lot of butter in this recipe.

Procedures

I started with a “rough puff” pastry recipe from Great British Bake Off courtesy of Prue Leith.
1. The process start with making a dough.

2. Next, to create lamination, you take 2 turns of rolling It out, and folding in grated frozen butter (substitute).

First roll with frozen, grated margarine.

Second fold, already looking more supple.

3. Next, you roll and fold twice more, without adding any extra butter, with added rest time in the fridge.

2. Here is where I switched to Sally’s Baking Addiction simplified steps. Starting with the “caramel sauce,” we melt brown sugar and butter (substitute) instead of caramelizing plain sugar.

The butter substitute incorporated with the brown sugar quickly, but it was quite thin.

However, it really thickened up after 3 minutes.

Then, I transferred it to my pie plate. This is where we begin our construction, almost similar to an upside down cake.

I was a little worried about the viscosity at first, but…

The caramel sauce spread out pretty well with a small offset spatula.

Next, I added apples (instead of pears). No regrets.

Then, I carefully transferred pastry that I had rolled out into a circle, tucked in the edges, and pricked it with a fork.

On your marks, get set, bake! I wasn’t sure whether to follow the shorter time in Sally’s Baking Addiction or the longer time in the Great British Bake Off recipe. I checked it at the shorter time, and it seemed less than ready. This makes sense, since Sally’s recipe is for an entirely different dough. After some more time, she was ready to shine.

After cooling for 10 minutes, it’s ready to flip out and reveal its beauty.

Final dairy-free pomme tarte tartin (French apple tart).

Results

She’s fancy, she’s still humble. She’s French, but down to earth. She’s the pomme tarte tatin, all without dairy.

STORAGE TIP: Your dairy-free pomme tarte tatin will keep safely at room temperature for 1-2 days. Otherwise, keep it in the fridge. This is a delicate pastry, so I am not sure how well it freezes. We did not have enough leftovers for that :)

Discussion

Results suggest that we strongly supported our first hypothesis. We made a dairy free French pastry, the classic pomme tarte tatin! Our only required substitute was a dairy-free margarine instead of butter. We used it in the first step of the dough, the lamination of the dough, and the caramel sauce. With the relatively simple ingredients, I’m sure authentic, dairy butter offers a unique taste that we may have not been able to replicate. However, with the neutral taste and functionality of our substitute, the texture of the pastry and the taste of the apples really shone.

Were we able to make it simple, too? Using Sally’s simplified steps, we greatly reduced the complication of preparing the fruit and caramel sauce. However, I opted to retain more of the original pastry instead of using a pie crust, as Sally suggested. It does involve more steps and care, but I wanted this dessert to feel special, at once elegant and rustic, for our fall and winter season. Also, isn’t a little extra effort sometimes worthwhile, both to honor ourselves, and for the enjoyment of others?

For more philosophical discussion about how much you can change of the original until its a different entity all together, check out our Pumpkin Snickerdoodles test.

We were lucky to enjoy this as part a regular weekend, but this treat earns its place on any holiday table. Whenever you try this, bon appetit!

Pomme Tarte Tatin: French Pastry Made Dairy-Free