Rosie McLean is a final year student studying for a Bachelor of Culinary Arts at Otago Polytechnic. Rosie has her own blog where she indulges us in her weakness for all things sweet. As a special Halloween treat, Rosie popped in and cooked this amazing dish. I must admit that I personally ate four of the six servings….how very selfish of me. Check out Rosie’s blog www.aspaceforpudding.com and definitely give this dessert a try – I gave it a big double thumbs up! Thanks Rosie!
Tarte tatin is one of my favourite desserts; I think the fact that it started out as a would-be disastrous mistake resonates with me, prone to making the odd horrendous kitchen misstep as I am. This version is an unorthodox departure from the classic apple filling, made with spiced pumpkin and sweet potato, which goes very well with the rich and unctuous caramel sauce and flaky, buttery pastry that form the basis of the dessert. It is topped with fluffy toasted marshmallow meringue.
I made this recipe in celebration of Halloween, which is slightly dubious given that here in New Zealand it is spring, the pumpkins are definitely not flourishing in the fields and the sun currently goes down at about 10 o’clock at night, but we have never let that stop us from celebrating anything else northern-hemisphere style.
As we discovered when we made the tarte to photograph and then ate it all afterwards, it is just as good served cold as it is hot, so it actually is a pretty versatile dessert for both seasons (as if desserts needed to be versatile!).