SHF#9 Tantalizing Titillating Tempting Tarts: Tropical Tarte Tatin

Life in flow is hosting this 9th edition of Sugar High Fridays, a totally sinful but oh, so tempting food blog event for the dessert lovers, with this edition's focus on tarts!

I'm not a baking enthusiast, as precise measurements and oven temperatures sometimes scare the hell out of me. But I did so much want to participate in this SHF, so I have decided to attempt something which looked pretty simple on paper but sounds so incredibly sophisticated - Tropical Tarte Tatin!

The whole process from start to finish does not take more than 40 minutes to an hour (including baking), and it's becoz' I cheated and used frozen puff pastry (from Pampas).

• Place 1/4 cup of lemon juice, 3/4 cup of water, 1/2 cup of sugar and 3 teaspoons of vanilla extract into a pan over medium heat, stirring until sugar dissolves.
• Adjust heat to medium high and bring to a simmer. Allow to simmer for about 8 minutes until syrup begins to turn golden brown.
• Add about 600g (or 1 can) of chopped pineapple to the pan. Bring heat up to high and then simmer for another 8 minutes or so (stirring occasionally) until pineapple caramelizes and syrup has thickened.
• In the meantime - preheat oven to 200C. Lay out puff pastry sheet(s) and cut 6 round circles (about 2.5 inches in diameter) - large enough to fit the top of a 6-cup muffin pan
  
• When pineapple mixture is ready, divide into the 6 muffin cups and top with the pastry circles, tucking the edges down.
  
• Bake for 10 to 15 minutes until pastry is golden. Remove from oven.
  
• Placing another cookie tray on top of the muffin pan, invert the tarts quickly.

Just the smell of caramelized pineapple will give any sugar-addict a huge high. And to make it even more tropically sinful, I added a scoop of mango ice-cream. Wonderfully easy to make, and vary with an assortment of other fruits that can be added to or used in place of pineapples. Maybe one day, I'll try making my own puff pastry.

A snippet of irrelevant history: Tarte tatin - upside down French apple tart - was so named to commemorate the Tatin sisters who first popularized this tart at their restaurant. Wonder whether they discovered it by chance when they dropped an upright apple pie and had to do repair work in the oven - something I could definitely identify with!