Alternative Cheeseboard with Apple Tarte Tatin

Alternative cheeseboard with an apple Tarte Tatin, served with blue cheese and cider.

Paul Ainsworth

Ingredients

• 50g unsalted butter
• 50g caster sugar
• 5 pink lady apples / or Cox apples – peeled, halved and oxidised
• 1 disc of puff pastry

To Serve

• Picked thyme leaves
• Sea salt
• Barkham Blue Cheese or a nice Stilton
• Cornish Cider

Method

To make the tart place the slightly soft butter into a copper base pan and spread out across the base, now place the sugar on top of the butter and set aside.

Peel the apples and slice both sides off leaving the center core, now trim the edges of the apple halves

Place the apples into the pan 1 by 1 fanning them around leaving 1 halve for the center

Place the puff pastry on top of the apples folding down the sides between the apples (make a couple of holes with a knife)

To cook the tart place the pan on the stove to get the caramel going but don’t take it too far! Just so its bubbling and golden.

Place into the oven at 170c for 1 hour & 5 mins then leave to cool slightly.

To Serve

Turn out the tart onto a rack and rearrange the tart until it is looking beautiful!

Finish with any excess caramel from the pan some picked thyme leaf’s and a pinch of sea salt then serve a good slice onto the plate (or the whole one if you made a small one)

Accompany the tart with a good wedge of Barkham blue cheese and a little glass of chilled Cornish cider.