Tarte Tatin apple pie was born when the sisters who ran the Tatin restaurant in France one evening had forgotten to make any desert. They took a cast iron skillet, put butter, apples and sugar in it, heated the contents and placed a thin layer of puff pastry over it. Then it was placed in a hot oven. When done, the skillet was emptied upside down and a delicious dessert resulted.
The trick is that the sugar and butter caramelize the apples and form a nice thick paste with the juices. The dough is delicious too.
The art of making Tarte Tatin apple pie
You can use any apples. I pick them from a wild orchard close by. Peel the apples, remove the cores and cut them in quarts. I use around 10 medium apples for a pie. Start with the butter, melt it and add the sugar. This way the sugar cannot spontaneously ignite. When the mixture becomes brown from caramelizing, add the apples and turn them now and then. When the apples have become somewhat softened, take the skillet off the fire. Then position the apple pieces and place the dough on top. Bake for 30 min in a pre-heated oven at 180 C.
After cooling won for half an hour, place a wooden board on the skillet and turn the combination upside down. Carefully remove the skillet.
Special equipment
Cast iron skillet, that can also be placed in the oven
Tarte Tatin apple pie
Equipment
- cast iron skillet
Ingredients
All you need
- 5 oz (150 g) butter
- 1 cup caster sugar
- 10 small to medium apples
- pinch of salt
- 1 sheet puff pastry to cover the pan
Instructions
All to do
- Peel the apples and remove the cores; slice them in 4 or 8 parts each
- Take the skillet add the butter and heat
- Add all the sugar while stirring now and then
- When the mixture becomes bubbly and brown, add the apples parts
- Turn the apple pieces once and let them become caramelized on both sides
- When softer and juices have come out, take the skillet from the heat source
- Cover the pan with the dough sheet and tuck the dough inside into the edges of the pan
- preheat the oven to 360 F (180 C)
- Place the skillet in the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes. The dough should have become colored
- Take the skillet out, let it cool down a bit
- Place a wooden board on top of the skillet and inverse . Remove the skillet carefully. And voila,tThe pie is ready!
Notes
Food allergy & intolerance information: gluten
Remarks
When you caramelize the sugar sufficiently, the taste will not be too sweet
Hi Wilfried,
Ik heb de tartetatin gemaakt, er is wat fout gegaan. De boter gemixt met suiker bleven te waterig, nadat de appels erbij waren. Heb wat liquid weg genomen. Na het bakken en afkoeling de taart geflipt. Heb hem nu toch weer even in de oven gedaan om wat te drogen. Heb je nog tips om
De suiker en boter beter te mixen? Groetjes Jannie
Hi Jannie,
We have solved this ‘on site’: the main issue appeared to be that the sugar and butter had to be heated sufficiently through, so that caramelisation became apparent with brown, very viscous semi-liquid. Normally, when only heating sugar in a pan: this is dangerous: it can ignite spontaneously at too high temperature. With the butter present, this chemical decomposition cannot easily occur. However the process of heating the sugar-butter mixture should be done slowly, at medium fire maximum.