I’m Benching All My Thanksgiving Pies for This Ingenious Dessert
On the Facebook event page for this year’s Friendsgiving, created three weeks ago by one ambitious cook in my squad, friends promised to bring macaroni and cheese...and turkey-infused vodka (a joke, I guess). But by the time the date rolled around last weekend, all that appeared at the table were a couple bottles of wine, Indian takeout menus pulled up on phones, Jenga (lol), and some very hungry people. It seemed like Friendsgiving wasn’t going to happen. Then I showed up with dessert.
It wasn’t just any dessert, but pastry genius Claire Saffitz’s butternut squash tarte tatin—her very seasonally appropriate take on the classic French concoction of caramel-shellacked apples layered atop buttery puff pastry, this time made with everyone’s fall favorite veg: butternut squash. That switch gives the whole thing a sweet-and-savory flavor and a satisfyingly tender texture that beats any sugar bomb pecan pie or unnaturally creamy pumpkin puree. It doesn’t hurt either that it’s damn pretty, with burnt-orange shingles and a top coat of shiny, glossy, vanilla-inflected caramel.
I gingerly placed my masterpiece on the table, like a proud tiger mom who drops off her piano prodigy backstage before a concert. Nonchalant. Maybe even a little smug. Conversation stopped. Jaws dropped. “OMG” punctuated a hushed room. People jumped up to grab forks and plates and started passing around slices of the glistening pinwheel tart. We dug in while we waited for takeout to be delivered. Friendsgiving was back on.
That is the power of Claire’s butternut squash tarte tatin: It can’t help but gather people around it. And it’s not hard to pull off, either—if you plan ahead. Claire calls for making your own cheater’s puff pastry, which isn’t as scary as it sounds. (Just ask associate editor Christina Chaey.) You only need time, patience—and a good rolling pin. The rest is easy.
As the dough chills, thinly chop the butternut squash into half moons and roast it in the oven with lots of sugar and butter until it curls along the edges and takes on almost honeyed taste, like the best fruit leather you’ve ever had. While it cools, cook the caramel with sugar, water, lemon juice, and vanilla extract in a saucepan over medium heat, swirling the pan constantly until it turns a light golden brown. Be vigilant! It happens much faster than you think it will. Drop a few tablespoons of butter into the caramel and pour into a springform pan—in my case, a buttered pie pan worked perfectly fine—and then start fanning out the butternut squash slices, focusing all your OCD efforts on that first layer since that’s what the people will see. Roll out the chilled puff pastry over the pie pan and cut the hanging edges, then poke a few holes with a fork all over the dough and tuck in in the sides with a spoon. Into the oven it goes for the next hour or so, until the puff pastry has risen (PTL!) and comes out lightly browned.
Here’s where it gets tricky. Once the tarte tatin is cooled, you need to flip it upside-down, so the pastry is on the bottom and your artful handiwork is on top for everyone to admire. “Don’t think; just do it,” I whispered to myself in my kitchen, psyching myself up like an athlete in a melodramatic Nike commercial. I placed a plate over the pie pan and gripped the edges, then turned it over in one quick move. Other than the butternut squash juices that dribbled on the counter, the flip was a success.
I relied on that same adrenaline-fueled maneuvering once we broke out the Jenga, long after we demolished the butternut squash tarte tatin. I pulled out one particularly precarious piece, earning me some more high-fives, OMGs, and a fresh beer. I guess that’s also the power of Claire’s tarte tatin.
Get the recipe:
Butternut Squash Tarte Tatin
