Light Pear Tarte Tatin

📝 Ingredients

• 6 firm pears (about 1 kg)
• 90 g caster sugar (80 g for the caramel, 10 g for the fromage frais)
• 15 g lightly salted butter
• 1 roll of shortcrust pastry (about 230 g)
• 300 g fromage frais, 3 % fat
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• ½ lemon (for the juice)
• 1 pinch of ground cinnamon

🍴 Utensils

• Large frying pan or sauté pan
• 24 cm round cake tin with a fixed base
• Peeler
• Wooden spatula
• Large serving platter
• Oven gloves

📖 Steps

1. Preheat the oven to 180 °C. Peel the pears, cut them into quarters and remove the core and seeds with a small knife. Drizzle them with the juice of the half lemon, which stops them from browning, then sprinkle with cinnamon, tossing gently.
2. Spread 80 g of sugar in an even layer in the frying pan, without water, and heat over a medium heat without stirring. When it starts to melt at the edges, gently swirl the pan until you have a runny amber caramel (5 to 7 min). Careful, caramel causes serious burns: never touch it with your fingers.
3. Off the heat, add the lightly salted butter in pieces and stir with a spatula: it will foam, that's normal. Return to a medium heat, add the pear quarters and cook for 10 to 12 min, turning them gently. If the caramel hardens when it touches the fruit, it will melt again in 1 to 2 min.
4. Stop cooking when the pears are golden, translucent at the edges and their juice has reduced to a thick syrup. Arrange them in the tin, rounded side down, in a very tight rosette as they shrink further during baking, then pour over all the caramel from the pan.
5. Unroll the shortcrust pastry and lay it over the pears. Tuck the overhanging edge down between the fruit and the side of the tin using a spoon, to form a rim that will hold in the juice. Prick the pastry 5 or 6 times with the tip of a knife to let the steam escape.
6. Bake for 30 to 35 min, until the pastry is deep golden and dry to the touch. Take the tatin out and leave it to rest for 10 min: the caramel should stay warm enough to release from the tin, but not be scalding when you turn it out.
7. Place the serving plate upside down on the tin, hold both firmly together with oven gloves and flip over in one swift movement. Lift the tin off gently; if a few pears stick, loosen them with a spatula and put them back in place.
8. Mix the fromage frais, vanilla extract and 10 g of sugar until the sugar has dissolved. Serve the tatin warm, cut into 6 slices, with a generous spoonful of vanilla fromage frais beside each slice.