I Swear I Was Sleepwalking (with Recipes for Pear and Apple Tarte Tatin and Salted Honey Caramels)

I rarely eat sweets. I don’t make them (except for Christmas presents, of course). I don’t buy them.

It’s not that I don’t want them; it’s that when they are in my house, they won’t shut up. They talk to me. They say, “Please eat me. Please, now. I want to be eaten now. Please don’t abandon me in the kitchen. Please eat me.”

So what can I do? Who wants to be cruel to a cookie? Or a tart? Not me, that’s for sure. So I do. Eat them, that is. Eat them until they are gone. I’m the ultimate can’t eat just one girl. My sister is the same way.

I can’t explain what happened today. One minute I was reading the Apples & Thyme round-ups here and here, and the next thing I knew there were honey caramels bubbling on the stove and a Pear and Apple Tarte Tatin in the oven. The power of the recipes that cooks had submitted to Apples & Thyme was too much for me.

I may have to extend the “don’t make them, don’t buy them” rule to include a new proviso: don’t read about them. I'm too suggestible.

As soon as they were done, I bundled up the Pear and Apple Tarte Tatin (minus one piece) and the Salted Honey Caramels (honest, I only had one) and delivered them to my husband's office. The cacophony of pleading coming from the kitchen overwhelmed me. The sweets had to get out of the house before I succumbed.

The worst part is, both items tasted absolutely delicious. But they had to go, so they did.

Pear and Apple Tarte Tatin
Adapted from Riana Ligarde’s recipe for Tarte Tatin at Garlic Breath.
Tarte Tatin is a tart cooked upside down, usually made with apples. In this variation, I’ve combined apples with pears for a lovely fall dessert.

Crust
1 1/3 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
6 Tbsp. butter
1/3 cup milk

Filling
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
4 Tbsp. butter
2 apples
3 pears

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Crust: Combine the flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor (if doing by hand, whisk the dry ingredients together). Cut the butter into cubes, add the cubes to the dry ingredients, and pulse until the mixture looks like coarse cornmeal (if doing by hand, cut the butter into the dry ingredients). Add the milk and pulse (or stir) just until the dough starts to come together. Form the dough into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate while you make the filling.

Filling: Peel and core the apples and pears. Slice into eighths. Put the sugar in a dry cast iron frying pan, and cook over medium low to medium heat just until the sugar starts to melt. Quickly whisk in the butter. Evenly distribute the melted butter and sugar over the bottom of the cast iron pan. Arrange the apples and pears over the butter and sugar, alternating slices of apples and pears. (If you don't have a cast iron pan, you can make the Tarte Tatin in a 10-inch buttered cake pan, make the caramel in a saucepan, and pour the caramel into the bottom on the cake pan.)

Roll out the dough until it is slightly larger than the frying pan. Place the rolled-out dough over the apple and pear slices. Tuck the edges under. Place in the oven and bake for 45 – 50 minutes, until the dough is nicely golden brown.

Take the pan out of the oven and run a knife or spatula around the edges of the Tarte Tatin to make sure the dough won’t stick to the pan when you turn it over. Place a serving plate over the frying pan, and flip the pan so the Tarte Tatin is fruit side up on the serving plate. If any fruit sticks to the bottom on the pan, return it to where it belongs on the Tarte. Serve warm.

Salted Honey Caramels
Makes 18 1 1/2” square caramels
Adapted from Pille at Nami Nami’s version of Heidi’s Honey-Espresso Caramels. I wanted to emphasize the flavor of the excellent thyme honey I brought back from Greece, so made the caramels using only honey, cream, and coarse Greek sea salt. These are very easy and quite delicious, although it takes about an hour for them to reach the proper temperature.

1 cup heavy cream
1 cup thyme honey (or other strong-flavored honey)
1 tsp. coarse sea salt, plus extra to sprinkle over

Mix the cream, honey, and salt in a heavy-bottomed, deep-sided saucepan. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat (or else the pan will boil over; trust me, I know what I'm talking about here), and cook at a low boil until the mixture reaches 245 - 250°F or the firm ball stage (firm ball is when a tiny bit of the caramel is dropped in cold water it will form a firm, but pliable, ball). Remove the pan of caramels from the heat.

Lightly butter a piece of parchment paper, and pour the caramels onto the paper. Lightly sprinkle with salt. I placed boxes of plastic wrap and waxed paper under the parchment paper, and against the edges of the candy, to square up the sides. When the caramels firm up, cut into squares and, if you desire, wrap them in parchment paper.