"My Honeyed Tarte Tartin celebrates the gloriousness of British honey"; Nigella Lawson

Servings:  6             Preparation: 10 minutes            Cooking time:  1 hour

Ingredients

750g   (approx. 6) Braeburn apples, peeled, quartered and cored
60g     unsalted butter, soft and sliced
75g     honey
1         pinch fine sea salt
1         ready-rolled disc puff pastry (from a 250g pack), defrosted to pack instructions
2–3    sprigs thyme

Tip:   Allow extra time for standing (if you can bear to wait to taste it)!

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 220ºC/200°C fan/gas 7. You could do this once the apples are cooking, but I like to make sure the oven’s really hot when the Tarte Tatin goes in.
   
   
2. Put the apple quarters onto a plate lined with kitchen towel to absorb any juices from the apples.
   
   
3. Measure out the butter and honey into a 24 cm ovenproof stainless-steel frying pan or, if you have one, a tarte tatin tin, and add a pinch of salt, then place over low heat to melt the butter, giving the odd stir to help it along and mix the honey into it. Once the butter’s melted, turn up the heat so that it comes to a foamy boil, and let it bubble away to the count of 10, then take off the heat.
   
   
4. Arrange the apple quarters in concentric circles, hump-side down, in the syrup (it’s easier to use the bigger apple quarters around the edge and the smaller ones in the centre) and pack them in as closely as possible, getting as many as you can in, as they do shrink somewhat on cooking. You may find you have a quarter or half of an apple left, depending on the size of the apples. Don’t worry that the cored side that’s uppermost will turn slightly brown, as this side will be covered by the pastry later.
   
   
5. Put the pan back over medium heat and, once the syrup comes to a bubble, cook for 15–16 mins, keeping an eye on it to make sure it carries on bubbling away serenely, swirling the pan gently every now and again and adjusting the heat as necessary. At the end of the cooking time, dip the tip of a teaspoon into the caramel and hold it away from the heat of the pan for 30 secs, by which time the caramel should be thickly sticking to the spoon, and dripping off only slowly.
   
   
6. Take off the heat to cool for 10 mins – the syrup should be very thick and slow-moving. (If it’s still fairly runny, it means you didn’t let it boil enough, so put it back on the heat to rectify this, once again leaving it to cool for 10 mins.)
   
   
7. A few minutes before the 10 mins is up, and when your oven is hot, ready and waiting, take the roll of pastry out of the fridge.
   
   
8. Lay the circle over the pan, pastry-side down, and peel off the paper. Check you have an even overhang all the way around, and then roll the edges under until the pastry comes to the interior edges of the frying pan and push down the rolled edges into and against the sides of the tin, rather as if you were tucking in a sheet. Don’t worry if the pastry doesn’t appear to be a perfect geometric circle: for one, the slightly rustic look is charming, and for another, it’s more important to get the edges tucked around the apples firmly.
   
   
9. Put the pan into the oven and immediately turn down to 200°C/180°C fan/gas 6. Bake for 30–35 mins, until the pastry is puffed up and a deep golden brown, then carefully remove from the oven and let it sit out for 3 mins. Wrap the handle of the pan with the oven glove or, better still, use a proper pan handle cover. I can’t tell you how often I’ve burned myself by forgetting the pan’s been in a hot oven and grabbing it with my bare hand! You, however, may be wiser than that.
   
   
10. When the 3 mins are up, place a plate with only a small lip around its rim and that is only a fraction bigger than the pan, over the pastry and, oven-gloved and with a firm touch, flip it over, so that the plate is underneath and the pan on top; then, with the plate on the kitchen surface, lift off the pan to reveal the gleaming, golden, honeyed apples. Should any caramel (or the odd piece of apple) be left stuck to the pan, just use a heatproof silicone spatula to scrape it off and spread it back over the tarte tatin.
    
    
11. Serve your beautiful, burnished tarte tatin with vanilla ice cream, soured cream or crème fraîche or some gently whipped, or even just pouring, double cream – whichever you prefer.