Tarte Tatin with apples
4 servings
60 minutes
Tarte Tatin is a legendary French dessert born from chance. According to legend, the Tatin sisters forgot to place the dough under the apples while managing a hotel in France; they baked them in caramel and then flipped the pie—thus the famous Tarte Tatin was born. This delightful combination of caramelized apples, melting butter, subtle notes of cinnamon and vanilla on a crispy puff pastry base offers a taste that balances sweetness with a slight tartness of apples and a texture that gently reminds one of home comfort. Tarte Tatin is perfect for morning coffee or as an elegant finish to a romantic dinner. It is served warm, sometimes with a scoop of vanilla ice cream that makes it even more perfect.
1
We peel the apples. Using a special cutter, we remove the core. We cut the apples in half.
- Apple: 1 kg
2
Let's start making caramel! In the mold (we used a regular saucepan), we pour in sugar and place it over medium heat (well, not exactly a regular saucepan, but a three-layer one — copper-aluminum-stainless steel — it's more practical and cheaper than pure copper cookware).
- Sugar: 220 g
3
While the sugar starts to melt, we cut the vanilla pod lengthwise and carefully scrape out the seeds.
- Vanilla pod: 1 piece
4
Let it cool down and thicken a bit, then we start laying out the apples, one by one. It's easy - they stick to the bottom by themselves.
- Apple: 1 kg
5
Sprinkle the apples lightly with sugar and cinnamon. Cut the butter into pieces and place them between the slices.
- Sugar: 220 g
- Ground cinnamon: pinch
- Butter: 100 g
6
We take good puff pastry, we used ready-made, brought by the baker, sorry. It's accepted here: you shouldn't do someone else's work in the kitchen if it's someone's profession.
- Puff pastry: 200 g
7
We soften and generously pierce with a fork.
8
We seal our pie well. The dough should fit very tightly to the apples.
9
Place in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for 40 minutes. Note that all ovens are different! Remove and let the pie cool.
10
How do we carefully take it out later? Place your palm on top, press firmly, and gently but strongly twist it. The apples should detach from the bottom of the pan. Slightly warm the pie on the stove over low heat. Drain the excess caramel! Return the caramel to the heat, let it boil, and thicken again (it already has apple juice in it).
11
Cover the mold with a plate and quickly flip the tatin to avoid it falling apart (do you remember what magical word to say while squinting?). And we 'glaze' it with hot caramel.