Like a tart tatine, this quince tart is made of flaky puff pastry, sweet, tender fruit, and caramel pulling it all together. This tart is safer, though, and more easily constructed.
A classic tart tatine is made by sauteing the fruit with caramel in a pan, then laying the pastry dough over it and baking it that way, inverting the tart when it comes out of the oven. Delicious, yes, but fraught with peril, because you invariably end up with hot caramel dripping down and burning your arms when you invert the pan.
But build a quince tart according to this recipe, and you'll have a perfectly contained dessert with none of the pain and suffering.
Quince Tart
Quinces
Sugar
Water
Puff pastry
1 egg
Caramel (recipe below)
Peel and core the quinces. Cut them into quarters or slices, however you like. Put them in a pot with equal quantities of water and sugar, enough to cover. Bring to a boil, then simmer until the quinces turn rosy pink and tender. This should take an hour or so.
Preheat your oven to 400 F.
Lay out a square of puff pastry (storebought is absolutely fine here). The shaping process is three steps, as laid out in the diagram below.
Step 1: Cut four lines (meeting at two of the corners) the square of puff pastry, according to the diagram on the left.
Step 2: Fold over one side of what will become two side walls of the tart, according to the middle diagram.
Step 3: Fold over the other side to create the other side walls of the tart, according to the diagram on the right.
Brush the tops of the side walls with some beaten egg.
Bake for about 20 minutes, or until puffy and golden brown.
If the floor of the tart has risen too much, poke through the top layer or so of it with a fork to make some more room for your filling.
Melt some of the caramel in a pan and stir the quince pieces into it until they are hot and coated.
Lay the quince pieces out into the pre-baked puff pastry tart shell, and pour any excess caramel over them.
Serve immediately.
Caramel
375 g granulated sugar
350 g glucose or corn syrup
500 g heavy cream
100 g butter
In a medium saucepan over medium heat, heat to 230 F. Pour onto a silpat lined baking sheet and allow to cool to room temperature.
(Note: We used this caramel because we had it lying around from an experiment where we made the dry caramel from the new Alinea cookbook. To make dry caramel, blend 210 g caramel made from this recipe with 65 g tapioca maltodextrin in a food processor until the caramel is completely absorbed. You'll end up with a powder that reconstitutes into a creamy caramel in your mouth. Serve in shotglasses with a sprinkling of crunchy salt (ideally Maldon salt), or however you like.)
