Banana Tarte Tatin

With Christmas’s all over likely being smaller this year, it is the perfect time to try something new and fancy…like this gorgeous Banana Tarte Tatin for the ninth day of Christmas here on the blog. You will knock the socks off your smaller celebration this year. These individual, intimate and delicious lil beauties get drizzled with my RUM CARAMEL SAUCE, making them even more awesome.

What even is a tarte tatin?

As you can probably tell from the name, it’s a French tarte. But it isn’t just any ole tarte, a tarte tatin is an upside down tarte, that is inverted onto the plate. Traditionally made with apples, my best comparison would be to the American Pineapple upside cake. It just isn’t cake, it is a flaky pastry dough (in this case, puff pastry that you buy, and I suggest this one).

Is it difficult to make?

Not really. and it really requires minimal ingredients. While apple or peaches are wonderful to use, bananas and caramel are a match made in heaven if you ask me. Plus, bananas are readily available. Plus, aren’t you kind of sick of all the apple from fall? I am a little bit…so, something a little different.

Tips for making these come out every damn time.

Making these really requires three things:

1. A decent baking dish, I used ceramic ramekins. You could use one large cast iron or several small cast irons.
2. A lot of butter, do not skimp on the butter, even if you think it seems like a lot. The butter is the key to a successful caramel and to ensure the tartes come out of the dish when finished.
3. Some faith in me and you. I was so afraid of making tarte tatins for so long (and pineapple upside down cakes for that matter), because I was so sure they would never come out of the pan. I envisioned half stuck to the bottom of the baking dish. Or I would turn them over lift up the dish and they would slop all over. Neither of these has ever happened to me, probably because of the first to tips above.

I do think you should take the leap and give these a shot. You will be very impressed with yourself and so will your guests. They are easier than you think, and trust me, when you do something you think you can’t in the kitchen, the feeling is pretty darn awesome.

They are easy enough to serve, warm from the oven with ice cream (and some of that rum caramel sauce I linked above).

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Banana Tarte Tatin

Ingredients

• 1 box Puff pastry buy it, and I linked an all-butter one above
• 4 ripe bananas not so ripe they are mush, sliced on a diagonal about 1/2 inch thick
• 8 tablespoons of unsalted butter softened
• 12 tablespoons of dark brown sugar use light brown if you don't have dark, it will be fine
• Sprinkle of salt for each tart just a tiny bit
• Tablespoon of heavy cream and a pastry brush

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 400, and have a rack on the lower third of the oven (not the very bottom rack though).
2. Cut four circles sized to the ramekin out of your puff pastry dough.
3. Smear two tablespoons of butter at the bottom of each ramekin, get a tiny bit just barely up the sides too. Sprinkle three tablespoons of brown sugar on the bottom of each ramekin, and then the tiniest bit of salt. Alternatively, if you don't have unsalted butter, or are nervous about over salting, skip adding salt, and use salted butter instead.

4. Arrange the bananas overlapping slightly on the butter and sugar, gently place the puff pastry round on top of the bananas. Brush the puff pastry top (which will end up being the bottom) with heavy cream. Bake on the bottom third of the oven for about 20-25 minutes. The puff pastry will be golden and you should see the butter brown sugar caramel bubbling up around the sides.

5. Get your plates out and ready. Remove the finished tartes from the oven and place a plate on top and turn upside down for each one. Do this right away, these do not rest in the baking dish. Leave the dish upside down on the plate for five minutes and remove. The tartes should come out perfectly and hold their shape. Top with ice cream and rum caramel sauce if you like.