Apple Tarte Tatin with Red Wine Caramel and Fresh Thyme

Once again, I turned to the dessert section for this week's Tyler Florence selection. I didn't have far to go, just a few pages past last week's Ginger Cake, I found Apple tarte Tatin with Red Wine Caramel and Fresh Thyme in Tyler Florence's Real Kitchen: An Indispensable Guide for Anybody Who Likes to Cook.

What can I say about this...it was the most ultimate apple pie. An apple pie for grown-ups, if you will. The red wine caramel sauce is unbelievable. Really. I have no words to describe it.

The only thing that I might do differently is just use one sheet of puff pastry. Tyler says to overlap them, but they overlapped by about 99 percent! Really one sheet practically covered my whole skillet, and I'm not sure if a double layer of puff pastry is really necessary. Because this dish is really about the lovely apples and the incredible sauce.

Apple Tarte Tatin with Red Wine Caramel and Fresh Thyme
Serves 8 to 10

4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 cup red wine (I used a malbec)
1/2 vanilla bean, split and scraped (I used 1 teaspoon extract)
1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
7 Granny Smith apples, peeled, halved, and cored
2 sheets puff pastry, 1 box - about 1 pound
Leaves from 2 fresh thyme sprigs for garnish (I forgot!)

Preheat the oven to 350. Place the butter and sugar in a small pot and cook, stirring constantly, over medium heat until the sugar has melted and caramelized, about 8 minutes. Remove the pot form the burner and add the cream. It will bubble and spit, so be careful. When the sauce has calmed down return to the flame and add the wine slowly while continually stirring. Add the vanilla scrapings and lemon juice.

Add half the red wine caramel sauce to a 10-inch cast-iron or regular ovenproof skillet. Place the apple halves, cut side up, making sure the apples are snug. Cover the top of the pan completely with puff pastry by overlapping the two sheets. Snip off the extra dough with scissors to create a circle that just fits inside the pan. Bake for 30 minutes, or until the puff pastry has risen and is golden brown.

Let the tarte rest in the pan for 15 minutes; then place your serving platter on top of the pan, and carefully flip it over. Lift the pan aways from the tarte; the beautiful apples will now be on top. Decorate the dessert plates with the remaining sauce, add a slice of the tarte, and garnish with the thyme.

This will be my entry for this week's Tyler Florence Fridays!