Tarte Tatin Recipe
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Tarte Tatin Recipe
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Easy recipe for Tarte Tatin, the classic French dessert of caramelised apples served upside down on a crispy base of shortcrust or buttery puff pastry. Created by accident by the Tatin sisters in France's Sologne at the end of the 19th century.
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Ingredients
- 5-6 apples Golden Delicious or Granny Smith
- 200 g (7oz) ready-made puff pastry thawed, if frozen and rolled out
- 3 tablespoon water
- 120 g (4½oz/ ⅔ cup) granulated sugar plus 2 tablespoon for sprinkling
- 30 g (1oz/2 tbsp) unsalted butter plus 15g/1 tablespoon extra
- 15 g (1 tbsp) calvados (optional)
- pinch salt (fleur de sel, Maldon or Celtic sea salt)
Instructions
- In a heavy bottomed saucepan, stir the water and sugar together until slightly dissolved (off the heat). Then, over a medium heat, leave the sugar alone to bubble and simmer until a light golden brown caramel forms (no need to stir at all until the caramel turns colour). This will take about 10 minutes.Stir in the butter (and salt if using) and splash of Calvados (if using) until the caramel is smooth and immediately pour into the cake tin.
- Preheat the oven to 190°C/170°C fan/375°F (gas 5). Peel the apples, cut them in half, remove the cores with a sharp knife (or use an apple corer) and cut them again horizontally.
- Arrange the apples upright in a circle and pack them as tight as you can (they’ll shrink while cooking), filling as much space as possible in the middle. Cut up any leftover apple and stuff them into the spaces.Top evenly with the extra butter cut into small bits (or brush with melted butter) and lightly sprinkle over the extra 2 tablespoons of sugar. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes.
- Remove the caramelised apples from the oven to cool slightly as you prepare the pastry.
- Ideally your puff is ready rolled so there’s no need to do anything. (If the puff pastry is in a block, roll it out to about 2mm thickness and cut out a circle very slightly larger (2-3cm) than the size of the pan you’re using). Place the pastry circle on top of the apples, tucking in the sides as far down the edges as you can, as it will neatly hold the apples when turned over at the end. Pierce a few small holes in the pastry to allow any steam to escape – this will prevent the puff pastry from puffing up too much while baking.
- Bake in the oven for a further 25-30 minutes (another 5 minutes if you like your apples darker), or until the pastry is golden brown and the apple juices bubble around the edges.
- Leave to cool for about an hour then run a knife along the edges just to help release the sticky beauty. To turn over the tart, cover the pan with a large deep plate (to catch any juices). Hold the pan and plate together and flip upside down quickly, pastry side down.
Notes
- Best eaten on the day it's made so that the pastry remains crisp underneath. Serve either at room temperature or slightly warmed with a dollop of good quality (full fat) crème fraîche or ice cream.
- Alternatively, add some Calvados Cream or for something different, Drambuie ice cream for a boozy, adult dessert.
- For more on apple varieties for baking, see the apple page.
- Measures: Please note that all my recipes are best made using digital kitchen scales in precise metric grams. Both ounces (and cups) are given as an approximate guide.
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