The Tarte Tatin is traditionally an apple tarte which fruits are precooked and coasted with caramel. It cooks head down, that is with the pastry on top like for a pie, and the tarte is then flipped onto a serving plate displaying then thick layer of fruits generously caramelised over a crusty pastry. Yum!
The tin you use does not need to be too wide. Note that this dessert is quite nutritious (plenty butter and sugar).
I wrote a post on THE TIP which makes this recipe a foolproof success! I didn’t make it up, only tumbled over it one happy day. The secret is in the way the fruits are cooked, instead of cooking them in a fry-pan, they cook in a volume of water with sugar, vanilla and butter. Don’t discard that beautiful butter sauce, you can use it for a semolina cake or just plain semolina or any other creative idea.
Note: you can choose to use a shortcrust pastry (not sweet) or here I have chosen puff pastry.
Serves 8 people.
Ingredients:
- 150 g of caster sugar for the caramel
- 300 g of sugar for the fruits cooking
- 300 g of unsalted butter
- 300 ml of water
- 1 vanilla bean, beans scrapped and placed in the water with the remaining bean.
- 6 to 8 large apples
- 1 quantity of puff pastry
- Apple jelly or apricot jam to brush the top for a nice finish (I did not do it on the tartes displayed here)
Method:
- Quarter (half only if using pears), peel and core your fruits.
- Heat up the oven to 170°C
- Place the fruits, water, butter, sugar (300 g) and vanilla in a saucepans and bring to a small boil. Cook until the fruits are just tender through (use a skewer to check).
- The tin you will use is important. It should be non stick and fully closed (at the bottom) i.e. a springform baking tin is not your best option here. An aluminium tin is the best here.
- In a thick bottom saucepan, place the rest of the sugar and heat up. When the sugar starts to dissolve and colour, do not be tempted to mix with a spoon, however you can shake the saucepan to distribute the sugar evenly. When your caramel is of a brown (do not go too dark), pour into the tin and making sure your hands are protected from the heat (use tea towels to handle the tin), turn the tin to distribute the caramel on the bottom and lower half of the sides.
- While the apples are cooking, you can roll the puff pastry out (unless you have some pre-rolled one) to 3 to 4 mm thickness.
- When the fruits are ready, allow them to cool down. This is only to avoid burning your fingertips though, so if you are in a hurry, skip this.
- Place the fruits quite close to each other over the caramel their outer face pointing partially up (see the photo of the tarte, this should make sense).
- Bake for 30 minutes or until the pastry on top is well golden.
- Allow to cool in the tin to warm before turning over. You can then brush some apple jelly or apricot jam (dilute it with a bit of hot water before).
- Serve warm with a dollop of creme fraiche or some whipped cream.
