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Tarte Tatin

Name: Tarte Tatin
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 80 min
Total time: 170 min
Yield: 8
Ingredients: 2 kg dessert apples (about 12), peeled; 3 tbsp water; 100 g caster sugar; 60 g cold unsalted butter, diced; 30 g unsalted butter, melted; 300 g all-butter puff pastry

An upside-down apple tart: apples packed into a pan of butter caramel, baked under a lid of pastry and turned out so the fruit sits glossy on top. Named after the Tatin sisters of Lamotte-Beuvron in the Sologne. This is Raymond Blanc's method, which bakes the apples before the pastry goes on.

Editorial illustration of the documented recipe; not a photograph of a kitchen-tested result.

Servings: 8
Preparation: 30 min
Cooking: 1 h 20
Resting: 1 h
Total: 2 h 50
Difficulty: Moderate

Equipment

Heavy ovenproof tarte Tatin tin or frying pan that can go on the hob (size not given by the source)
Baking tray
Pastry brush; serving plate larger than the tin

Servings8

Ingredients

2 kgdessert apples (about 12), peeled
3 tbspwater
100 gcaster sugar
60 gcold unsalted butter, diced
30 gunsalted butter, melted
300 gall-butter puff pastryRolled 3 mm thick, cut slightly larger than the tin, pricked with a fork and frozen.

Shopping list

Method

Heat the oven to 180 °C.
Halve the apples across, remove the cores and slice off the rounded tops and bottoms so they sit flat.
Put the water in the tin and sprinkle the sugar over. Leave 2 minutes to let the water soak in.
Timer · 2 min2:00
Cook over a medium heat until the syrup becomes a pale blonde caramel, then stir in the diced butter.
Why Blanc keeps the caramel pale so it does not overpower the apples; the cold butter stops the cooking.
Arrange the apples, cut middles upwards, round the edge of the tin, then fill the centre. Pack them as tightly as you can, pressing down with your hands.
Brush with the melted butter, set the tin on a baking tray and bake 30 minutes.
Why The apples shrink as they cook; baking them first means the pastry is not stretched over air.
Timer · 30 min30:00
Lay the frozen pastry disc on top, tuck the edges inside the tin and pierce a few steam holes. Bake 40–45 minutes more, until the pastry is crisp and golden brown.
Timer · 45 min45:00
Leave at room temperature for 1 hour, then turn out onto a plate and serve warm.
Timer · 1 h60:00

Substitutions

Puff pastry → Rachel Allen's BBC tatin uses a soured-cream shortcrust instead.

Common mistakes

Dark caramel: it turns bitter and masks the fruit.
Loosely packed apples: they collapse into a flat layer with gaps.
Turning out too soon: the caramel is still liquid and runs off; too late and it sets in the tin. Warm it on the hob for a minute if it sticks.

Storage & reheating

Blanc says it can be made the day before and reheated in the oven. Keep leftovers covered in the fridge up to 2 days.

Allergens

Gluten · Milk

Check labels: stock, bacon and sauces can contain further allergens.

Dietary

vegetarian

The Tatin sisters and the legend

The tart is named after Stéphanie (Fanny) and Caroline Tatin, who opened the Hôtel Tatin in Lamotte-Beuvron in 1894 and retired in 1906. The story most often told is that Stéphanie, rushed in a hot kitchen, forgot apples cooking in butter and sugar, covered the pan with pastry to save them and served the tart upside down. Food writers doubt it: an upside-down tarte aux pommes à la solognote is reported as older, and the sisters never claimed the dish.

According to the Friends of the Tarte Tatin, the tart was first mentioned in print in 1903, in the Bulletin de la Société Géographique du Cher. Curnonsky included it in La France gastronomique in 1926, and Maxim's in Paris put it on its menu in the late 1930s. The Maxim's owner's tale of taking a gardening job at the hotel to learn the recipe is dismissed as a 'cute legend', since he was born in 1902.

[1][2]

Caramel first, pastry last

Raymond Blanc builds the tart in the pan: a pale caramel, butter, then whole half-apples packed upright as tightly as possible and baked for 30 minutes before the pastry goes on. The pastry is rolled to 3 mm and frozen so it holds its shape when laid on the hot fruit. After 40–45 minutes more and an hour's rest, the juices have set into the caramel and the tart turns out cleanly.

[3]

How it connects

Place

origin Lamotte-Beuvron In preparation

Story

related Fruit: from the apple forests of the Tian Shan to the banana boat