Apple and Pear Tarte Tatin

Ingredients

• 14 ounces puff pastry dough, cold
• Flour, for dusting
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 30 ounces peeled and cored apples and or pears, cut in half down the axis
• 6 tablespoons apple cider
• 1 pinch of salt

Directions

1. Lightly flour your work surface and roll the cold puff pastry to just under 1/4 inch thick. It should be large enough to cover the full width of the 12-inch skillet you’ll bake in, with at least 1 inch hanging past the rim on every side. Transfer the pastry to a parchment-lined sheet tray and refrigerate it for 30 minutes or more so it can settle and chill.
2. Set a rack in the center of the oven and heat the oven to 400 degrees F. Put the frying pan over medium heat. Add the butter and let it melt, tipping the pan so the bottom is coated. Scatter the sugar over the butter, then tilt the pan again so the sugar spreads evenly. As soon as the sugar starts to melt and take on a little color, add the fruit.
3. Cook the fruit for 2 minutes on each side, being gentle with the rounded side, since that will be visible on the finished tart. You only want the fruit lightly cooked at this point. Pour in the cider to loosen the browned bits from the pan, then arrange the fruit snugly in the pan with the cut sides facing up. Take the pan off the heat.
4. Drape the chilled pastry over the apples and tuck the extra dough down inside the pan around the fruit, forming an edge. Bake for 20 minutes at 400 degrees F, then lower the oven to 350 degrees F and continue baking until the pastry is deeply golden, feels quite firm, and the juices are bubbling hard underneath, about 20 minutes more.
5. Take the tart out of the oven and let it stand for 1 minute. With oven mitts or kitchen towels, set a plate larger than the pan upside down over the tart. Hold the plate tightly against the pan and, in one quick motion, flip everything so the plate is underneath and the fruit is on top. Lift off the pan carefully, remembering that the fruit juices will be extremely hot. Let any juices run from the pan onto the tart. Cool for 10 minutes before serving warm, or return it to the oven for 5 minutes before serving.