It's

Cozy Food Friday

That means it's time to share a recipe from 

another great cozy mystery!

Today I'm featuring 

THE TELL-TALE TARTE 

Book 4 in the Five-Ingredient Mysteries

by Maya Corrigan

It’s a cold January in the Chesapeake Bay area, but Cool Down Café manager Val Deniston has plenty to sweat over—like catering a book club event, testing recipes for her Granddad’s cookbook, and catching the author of a deadly tale of murder. . .

The last thing Val needs in her life is an unsolved murder, especially when the victim, an actor famed for impersonating Edgar Allan Poe, happens to be dressed exactly like her Granddad. To keep an eye on Granddad, whose latest job takes him to the home of Rick Usher, a local author inspired by Poe, Val gets herself hired as a cook in Rick’s House of Usher. When she discovers the actor wasn’t the only one doing an impersonation, separating the innocent from the murderous becomes a real-life horror story. But Val must decipher a killer’s M.O. sooner rather than later . . . or she can forget about finding poetic justice.

Includes 6 delicious five-ingredient recipes!

On to the recipe!

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TARTE TATIN

All food photos are borrowed from Google Images and it contributors, with many thanks. 

Your finished tarte will very in appearance.

Just because a recipe has five ingredients doesn't mean it's easy or quick to make. This tarte takes practice and a lot of courage at the last step when you turn a hot skillet upside-down at the last step and hope the tarte ends up on the plate.

It's best to cut the apples 1-3 days before making the tarte to dry them out. Otherwise, you may end up with too my juice in the tarte. Put the cut apples in a lightly covered bowl in the refrigerator. If you don't have time to let the apples dry out, put a piece of foil under the skillet when it goes in the oven to catch any drips.

Ingredients

6-8 large apples. peeled, cored, and quartered (A mix of Granny Smith and   Honeycrisp apples works well.)

6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) softened unsalted butter

2/3 cup sugar

1 frozen puff pastry

Equipment: a seasoned 10-inch cast iron skillet

Directions

   Preheat the oven to 400 degrees when ready to cook. 

   Slice the bottom off each apple to give it a flat base. Peel and quarter the apple lengthwise and remove the cores. See the note above the ingredients about storing apples in the refrigerator for at least one day before cooking. 

   Spread the butter on the bottom and sides of a seasoned 10-inch cast-iron pan and sprinkle the sugar evenly on the bottom. Arrange the apples vertically in the skillet, standing them on the flat end, in concentric circles. Pack the pieces close together so they support one another. Apples that stick higher than the pan rim will shrinks down as they're cooked. 

   Prepare the pastry while the apples are cooking. Follow the directions for defrosting the puff pastry. Then roll it out on a floured surface until it is 1/8 inch thick. Put a 10-inch plate upside-down on the pastry and use a sharp knife to cut out a circle the size of the skillet's top. 

   1. Cook the apples over medium high heat, 15-25 minutes until juice is babbling and a deep golden or light brown color. 

   2. Put the skillet in the oven and bake the apples for 20 minutes at 400 degrees. 

   3. Remove the pan from the oven, lay the pastry circle over the apples, and tuck it around the apples. Bake the tarte at 400 degrees until the pastry is browned, approximately 20 minutes. Check it after 15 minutes to make sure it doesn't get too dark. You want the crust to be a nice golden brown. If it still looks pale after 20 minutes in the oven, bake it a few more minutes.

   Move the skillet to a rack and cool it at least 10 minutes and up to 30 minutes. Put a cutting board or platter over the skillet. Use potholders to hold the skillet tightly against the board or platter. Turn the skillet upside-down. If apples stick to the skillet, add them to the top of the tarte. 

   If the tarte stands longer than 30 minutes after being baked, heat it over low heat for 1-2 minutes before turning the skillet over. 

   Cut the tarte in wedges and serve warm with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream, or just eat plain.

   Serves 8

Adapted from a recipe for "Foolproof Tarte Tatin" by Julia Moskin, The New York Times, October 22, 2014

I've never had tarte tatin, but this is enough to make me wish I had a piece right now!

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Please keep reading and check out my 

installments of 

Book Beginnings on Fridays

and

The Friday 56

Both the BB and 56 are also from

THE TELL-TALE TARTE

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Book Beginnings on Fridays is a meme hosted by Rose City Reader

Share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading

The Friday 56 is a meme hosted by Freda's Voice

Rules: *Grab a book, any book. *Turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader (If you have to improvise, that's okay.) *Find any sentence, (or few, just don't spoil it) that grab you. *Post it.

My Book Beginnings

Why would a man in his seventies change his appearance overnight?

My 56

". . . . . . Why can't you just accept that and forget going back there?"

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