Fall French Dessert

[gfron1]

What would be an example of an elegant classic French dessert?

[sanrensho]

Mont blanc!

[alanamoana]

simple and clean apple galette with frangipane

individual st. honore

oeufs a la neige (floating islands)

nougat glace (frozen nougat)

crepes suzette

all of these things are very classic/traditional, but they can be gussied up very easily to be more elegant in presentation

[Abra]

Tarte Tatin! The markets here in France are full of apples now, apples and chestnuts. And pears, if you want to make a pear tatin instead of apple.

[TarteTatin]

Oui, bien sur!

[Kerry Beal]

I love a good Tarte Tatin as well, but for a slightly more elegant look a Pear Frangiapane Tart would be nice and autumnal.

[Dave Hatfield]

Abra et al

You missed out on Tarte Tatin. Also, I don't see it on recipe gullet.

Therefore, I promise to do an illustrated recipe next week.

Things with walnuts in them are very popular this time of year when the walnuts start dropping. (We had rain yesterday which caused most of ours to fall. I out scrambled Rupert to get most of them)

A local favorite is a walnut gateau with wild honey & decorated with toasted walnut halves.

[gfron1]

Thank you for all of the suggestions. I'll be whipping something up in the next two days, and I'll let you know what we ended up with.

[David Israel]

Thank you for all of the suggestions.  I'll be whipping something up in the next two days, and I'll let you know what we ended up with.

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One more suggestion, if it's not too late -- the Far Breton recipe in "Baking: From My Home to Yours." Perhaps not the most elegant dessert, but certainly fits the autumn theme. I made it last year and was extremely pleased with it, what with the Earl Grey-infused dried fruits and Armagnac-flavored whipped cream along side.

[gfron1]

All of the components are finished. Patrick A will be assembling it for me tomorrow - geez I hate doing that to him! I ended up combining a few of these ideas based on my time, skill and what I had on hand.

The base is a puff sprinkled with demera. Hazelnut pastry cream. Layers of fillo sprinkled with butter, sugar and toasted hazelnut crumbs. Orange whipped cream. Decorated wth a dried pear sheet which was splashed with rum. Sprinkled with more hazelnut crumbs. Plated with 70% ganache ribbons, and orange sauce and pears poached in muscat. If we get a pic, I'll be sure to post. Thanks again everyone.

[David Ross]

Sounds like you already got started on your dessert, but I'd also suggest making a Tarte Tatin, especially since we are in the midst of apple season. I started making a Tarte Tatin just yesterday that I'll serve tonight. The photo below is a Tarte Tatin I made a while back using pears. Pears are also good in a Tarte Tatin, but of course, apples are the classic. Here's my recipe:

Apples

2 sticks unsalted butter, cut into pieces

10-12 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and cut in half

1 ½ cups granulated sugar

Pastry

2 1/3 cups all purpose flour

1/3 cup cake flour

1 tbsp. superfine granulated sugar

½ tsp. salt

1 stick unsalted butter, chilled, cut into pieces

½ cup Crisco shortening, chilled, cut into pieces

½ cup ice water

Heat oven to 400°. Heat a 10-12" round and 2-3" deep heavy ovenproof non-stick skillet over medium heat. Add butter to skillet and melt. Add sugar to skillet and stir with butter until sugar is melted. Remove from heat and arrange apples side by side in skillet.

Place skillet in oven and let cook for 1 hour or until apples are soft and puffy. Remove skillet from oven and let cool to room temperature. Cover skillet with foil and refrigerate overnight. This lets the apples cool down into the caramelized sugar.

To make the pastry, combine flour, cake flour, sugar and salt in a large bowl and stir to mix. Using a pastry cutter, cut in butter and Crisco into small pea size bits. Mix in enough ice water with a fork until the pastry comes together. Form pastry into a ball and cover completely with plastic wrap. Refrigerate pastry for at least one hour before using.

To complete the Tarte Tatin, heat oven to 350°. Take the the skillet and the pastry from the refrigerator. Roll out the pastry to 1/8" thickness. Gently place the pastry over the apples in the skillet. Trim edge of pastry so that about ½" overhangs skillet. Press in edges of pastry to inside of skillet.

Bake skillet in oven just until pastry is golden, about 20 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes.

To unmold the Tarte Tatin, place a plate over the top of skillet and carefully turn over the skillet. The Tarte Tatin should easily invert onto the plate. Cut into wedges and serve warm with a scoop of Vanilla Ice Cream.

[Dave Hatfield]

Sounds like you already got started on your dessert, but I'd also suggest making a Tarte Tatin, especially since we are in the midst of apple season.  I started making a Tarte Tatin just yesterday that I'll serve tonight.  The photo below is a Tarte Tatin I made a while back using pears.  Pears are also good in a Tarte Tatin, but of course, apples are the classic.  Here's my recipe:

Apples 

2 sticks unsalted butter, cut into pieces 

10-12 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and cut in half

1 ½ cups granulated sugar 

 

Pastry 

2 1/3 cups all purpose flour 

1/3 cup cake flour

1 tbsp. superfine granulated sugar 

½ tsp. salt

1 stick unsalted butter, chilled, cut into pieces 

½ cup Crisco shortening, chilled, cut into pieces

½ cup ice water 

 

Heat oven to 400°. Heat a 10-12" round and 2-3" deep heavy ovenproof non-stick skillet over medium heat. Add butter to skillet and melt. Add sugar to skillet and stir with butter until sugar is melted. Remove from heat and arrange apples side by side in skillet.

Place skillet in oven and let cook for 1 hour or until apples are soft and puffy. Remove skillet from oven and let cool to room temperature. Cover skillet with foil and refrigerate overnight. This lets the apples cool down into the caramelized sugar.

To make the pastry, combine flour, cake flour, sugar and salt in a large bowl and stir to mix. Using a pastry cutter, cut in butter and Crisco into small pea size bits. Mix in enough ice water with a fork until the pastry comes together. Form pastry into a ball and cover completely with plastic wrap. Refrigerate pastry for at least one hour before using.

To complete the Tarte Tatin, heat oven to 350°. Take the the skillet and the pastry from the refrigerator. Roll out the pastry to 1/8" thickness. Gently place the pastry over the apples in the skillet. Trim edge of pastry so that about ½" overhangs skillet. Press in edges of pastry to inside of skillet.

Bake skillet in oven just until pastry is golden, about 20 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes.

To unmold the Tarte Tatin, place a plate over the top of skillet and carefully turn over the skillet. The Tarte Tatin should easily invert onto the plate. Cut into wedges and serve warm with a scoop of Vanilla Ice Cream.

David, Great recipe! And great pictures. Looks delicious.

Your Tarte Tatin technique is somewhat different from mine,but looks similar at the finish.

I am doing one next week so will take pictures and describe my method for comparison. We agree on Granny Smith's as the best apple for this; we do our crusts very differently and our cooking technique differs quite a lot.

Should be fun comparison.

[gfron1]

A day late and a dollar short - but that does look super. I'll get it on my to-do next weekend also. Thanks.