Prep time 15 min Cook time 50 min
Usually, I do not add a layer of baked calories after a satisfying meal and prefer simple fresh fruit desserts.
Also I cannot bake, so if I want to serve a baked dessert, I pick one that is both easy to prep and provides quality calories. The Oum Ali and Crostata I have on this web site win on both counts. So does this Tarte Tatin which also scores on killer looks.
This famous French apple tart is made by laying peeled and cored apples at the bottom of a shallow baking dish or oven proof skillet with butter and sugar, caramelizing them and then covering that mixture with a puff pastry crust. Once baked, the tart is inverted onto a serving plate.
There is one rule for eating Tarte Tatin, which is scrupulously observed. Usually served with whipped cream, it must be served warm, so the cream melts on contact.
According to the history, two French sisters, Carolina and Stephanie Tatin created this tart. They owned and ran a hotel called l’Hotel Tatin in the L’oire Valley. Stephanie’s specialty was an apple tart, served perfectly crusty, caramelized and which melted in the mouth. One day during the hunting season and the midday scramble, Stephanie placed her tart in the oven the wrong way round. The pastry and apples were upside-down but, nevertheless, she served this strange dessert without giving it time to cool. It was a resounding success.
It is an easy and foolproof dessert that needs very little prepping and lets you get on with other things while it cooks. This Epicurious recipe which Marcelle found and cooked is one of the few that uses vanilla beans. We happened to have some that we picked up in a farmer’s market on a recent trip to Aix En Provence. They were the genuine, world famous vanilla beans from Madagascar but the recipe can work without vanilla.
Tarte Tatin
by
Derek Farwagi
Equipment
- oven proof skillet or baking tin
Ingredients
- 5-6 Pink Lady or other crisp apples, peeled, halved and cored. Use as many apples as you need to pack them tightly in the skillet.
- ½ cup brown sugar
- ½ vanilla bean (optional), split lengthwise
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- Pinch salt
- 1 sheet frozen puff pastry (one 14-ounce package or half of a 17.3-ounce package), thawed.
- All purpose flour to dust the work surface.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°.
- Peel and cut apples in half and remove the core. Set aside.
- Scatter half of sugar in a heavy 9" skillet and scrape in vanilla seeds; discard pod. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until sugar is melted and starting to caramelize, 6–8 minutes (if using a cast-iron skillet, test the color of the caramel by spooning some onto a white plate. It should be pale amber).
- Add remaining sugar and cook until all sugar is dissolved and has taken on a deep amber color.
- Stir in butter, vinegar, and salt. Place apples cut side down in skillet and cook until they start giving up some of their juices and shrink slightly, 5–8 minutes. Carefully turn apples over and scoot them together so they overlap slightly. (The apples will shrink more as they bake, so they need to be tightly packed from the beginning.) Remove from heat
- Gently roll out puff pastry on a lightly floured work surface just to smooth out creases; cut into a round that will fit snugly and flush inside skillet. Drape puff pastry over apples and transfer skillet to oven.
- Bake until pastry is puffed and starting to brown in spots, 20–25 minutes. Reduce heat to 350° and bake until apples are tender and pastry is golden brown and cooked all the way through, 20–25 minutes longer. Let rest 5 minutes before inverting onto a platter.
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