Tarte du Soleil

Tatin di Albicocche & Kiwi con Mandorle Zucchero Profumato
Apricot and Kiwi Tart Tatin with Toasted Almonds and Perfumed Sugar

Another therapy session for me this recipe... a cure for a cold and rainy July Morning. With a sky so gray, my only chance was to make myself a bite or two of Summer for myself today. And what could look more sunny and appealing than this for breakfast? Forget those Danish pastries, today we are speaking French and the only words we need are "Tarte Tatin"!

A Tart Tatin is an incredibly simple affair and I have already one or two of them in my repertoire on this blog... so I won't bore you with repeating the procedure of putting the pie together in a pan, "upside down", placing the pastry on top, baking it in the oven and then turning it out- haha! You KNOW that is all there is to it! But what you don't know yet, is the mix for the perfumed sugar I created for this. But you DO want to find out now, don't you?

 

To make the perfumed sugar, I decided to pay a little hommage to the country of the Tart Tatin's birth and use some typically French aromas. So I took lavender and anise and ground them, along with a little vanilla powder, into some regular white sugar. I gave it a little extra "zing" by grating a hint of grapefruit zest in to the mix. Basically because I just love the French word for grapefruit- "pampelmousse". And to try a slightly more subtle and alternative flavor to lemon. I didn't use "fresh" vanilla, as I didn't want to end up with a paste- which would have happened making this small amount. But I have placed a vanilla pod into a jar of sugar now to perfume it and will use that as my base next time around. Because the resulting combination of flavors was simply delightful... seriously! Light and floral, fresh and reminiscent of a fresh breeze in the Provence whilst sipping a glass of ice cold Pastis... now isn't that poetic? Ha!

So that was my sunny little breakfast tarte this morning, and all I can say is "Bonjour tout le monde ét bon apetit!"