Nigel Slater’s dried fig and marsala tart, and clementine and ginger butter recipes (2024)

I like the idea of the upside-down tart, where the fruit is revealed, like a rabbit from a hat, from under its upturned baking tin. A classic tarte des demoiselles tatin perhaps, or maybe something of our own, a variation on the traditional upside-down apple tart. The original version, with its halved apples cooked first in caramel sauce on the hob, then baked under a puff-pastry base, is tricky to get right. By which I mean you have been brave enough to get the caramel an inch from becoming toffee. It should appear in shades of amber, gold, brown and black, with a wavering pastry edge and its own glistening puddle of caramel sauce. And all of this achieved without burning yourself.

The basic idea of fruit cooked under pastry (thus keeping the crust crisp and the fruit glistening with butterscotch-flavoured sauce) need not be confined to apples nor even to puff pastry. This week I released some dried figs from what seems like a lifetime trapped in a Kilner jar in the larder, the flattened seed-encrusted sort rather than the wet, ready-to-eat variety, and baked them under crumbly sweetcrust pastry.

There are two tricky moments in the preparation of upside-down tart and both involve the caramel. First, the making of the sugar and butter sauce without burning it, and second, restraining said hot sauce from pouring out over your fingers as you upend the tart on to its serving plate.

The caramel is something I have been playing with for years. I have finally decided not to make it in the traditional manner. It is far easier to make one from sugar and a little sweet wine (in this case marsala), then drop cubes of butter into it, then let everything come together in the oven. The fruit helpfully soaks up most of the caramel, leaving just the right amount of buttery stickiness.

Dried fig and marsala tart

Use a heavy tarte tatin mould if you have one. Failing that a metal-handled frying pan or a shallow-sided tart tin with a fixed base.

Serves 8
dried figs 500g
golden sultanas 50g
dry marsala 100ml
golden caster sugar 100g
butter 50g
For the pastry
butter 175g, cold
plain flour 225g
golden caster sugar 2 tbsp
egg yolks 2, large

To serve double cream, ice cream, crème fraîche or the citrus butter (below)

Set the oven at 200C/gas mark 6. Put the figs and sultanas into a mixing bowl, pour over the marsala and leave to stand for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Make the pastry: cut the cold butter into small cubes and rub into the plain flour, either with your fingertips or using a food processor. Work until you have what looks like coarse, fresh breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar.

Break the eggs into a small basin and beat them lightly with a fork, then add them to the butter and flour. Mix together until you have a soft dough, then turn out on to a floured board and knead briefly, for just a minute, then shape the dough into a smooth, fat cylinder. Wrap in greaseproof paper or clingfilm and leave to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Make the caramel: place the tatin mould or frying pan over a moderate heat. If you will be baking the tart in a cake tin, use a frying pan to make the caramel, otherwise you will damage your tin. Add the marsala from the dried fruit, leaving the fruit behind in the bowl, then add the sugar. Bring to the boil and leave to form a thin caramel. If you are using a tatin mould, remove from the heat. If using a shallow pan, pour the caramel into the cake tin.

Cut the butter into small cubes and scatter it over the caramel. Place the plumped-up figs on the base of the tin in a single layer (neatly or not as you wish), then scatter over the sultanas, pushing them into any gaps.

Roll out the pastry a little larger than the tatin mould or cake tin. With the help of the rolling pin – it is very fragile – lift the pastry into the cake tin, pressing it gently into place over the figs. Tuck in any overhanging pastry.

Bake in the preheated oven for about 25 minutes until the pastry is golden. Remove and leave to settle for 10-15 minutes. Place a large serving plate on top of the tart then, using oven gloves, hold the tin and plate firmly and carefully turn them over, leaving the tart to slide out on to the plate. Serve warm with cream, ice cream or the citrus butter (below).

Clementine and ginger butter

An alternative to crème fraîche or ice cream. It’s sweeter, but has a soft citrus note that flatters the dried figs.

Finely grate the zest from the clementines and the lemon and fold into the butter and sugar. Slice the preserved ginger into thin discs then chop finely. Add the ginger to the butter then slowly stir in the marsala. Transfer to a serving bowl and set aside, in the fridge, for 30 minutes to firm up a little. Serve with the warm tart above.

Email Nigel at nigel.slater@observer.co.uk or follow him on Twitter @NigelSlater