A question about a recipe: Cherry Tomato Tarte Tatin

You can add as much water as you want. The more water, the longer it will take to boil off and reach caramelization. More water makes it easier to make sure all the sugar is dissolved and caramelizes evenly but time is the tradeoff. I usually use just a tablespoon or two to start but more is safer.

The water suggestion when carmelizing sugar is to help the inexperienced sugar melter to keep from burning the carmel by slowing down the process a little bit. The sugar does not begin to turn to carmel until all the water has boiled off anyway. Melting the sugar with no water needs your full attention the entire time because the process can go pretty quickly.

The recipe calls for 1/4 cup but I usually start with 2 tablespoons of water. If you want a little less caramel ( because it does spill around the pastry when you turn it out ) reduce the sugar to 1 cup .

I usually just splash in enough to moisten the sugar ... more is better than less at least when I caramelize ... don't stir!!