Tarte Tatin recipe, the best recipe

Tarte Tatin is the quintessential upside-down dessert. A classic of home cooking, it requires few ingredients: apples, butter, sugar, and a good pastry. The principle is well-known: the fruit is caramelized in the bottom of the pan before being covered with pastry and baked.

250 g of flour
100g of butter
80 g of water
1 pinch of salt or fine salt
8 Golden Delicious apples
75g of butter
75g of caster sugar or granulated sugar
1 vanilla bean
Casserole
Utility knife
Vegetable peeler
Whip
Cake tin
Rolling pin
1. Preparing the caramel: Place a cake tin over medium heat.
2 Add the butter.
3 When it is partially melted, pour in the sugar and the scraped seeds from the vanilla pod.
4 Cutting, arranging and cooking the apples Peel your apples, cut them in half and remove the core.
5 When the caramel is brown, arrange the apple halves in the mold, on their sides, forming a rosette and then filling in the center.
6. Cook over low heat for 20 minutes OR in the oven for 30 minutes at 170°C.
7. Preparing the magic dough
8. Dissolve the salt in cold water.
9 Pour the flour, the cold butter cut into cubes and the salted water into a bowl.
10 Assembling the tarte tatin Form a ball without overworking the dough.
11. Roll out the dough on a floured work surface to a thickness of 5 mm, shaping it into a round.
12. Place the dough on top of the warm apples.
13 Using a small spoon, push the excess dough between the apples and the edge of the mold.
14. Make a hole in the center to allow the steam to escape.
15 In an oven preheated to 170°C, bake the tarte tatin for about an hour.
16 Unmolding the tarte tatin Cover it with your serving dish which has a slight rim to collect the juice.
17. Grab both dishes at the same time with two dry cloths.
18. Turn the whole thing over in one quick motion.
19 Serve warm.

Tips for ingredients

I chose Golden Delicious apples because they hold up well when cooked and are both sweet and slightly acidic.

Preparation tips

For a successful tarte tatin, you need to focus on two things: the magic pastry and the caramel. I'm sharing the recipe for the magic pastry because it's extremely simple to make and, if you don't overwork it, it doesn't require any resting time because the gluten won't have been disturbed.

As for the caramel, you must always keep an eye on it to prevent it from burning. It would be a shame if our tart had a bitter taste because of that.

Training advice

Unmold it as soon as it's baked: that's the rule. If you wait for it to cool, the caramel will harden and the tart will break when you turn it over. So, there's only one rule: turn it over while it's still hot. Then, arrange a slice on a plate with a dollop of crème fraîche to add a touch of acidity.

What are some variations on tarte tatin?

Tarte Tatin is a classic of French cuisine that never gets old. But other very similar recipes are also worth trying.

What wine should I drink with a tarte tatin?

I recommend a white wine such as Jurançon or a straw wine, quite sweet, to go with this dessert.

What side dishes should be served with tarte tatin?

You can serve this tarte tatin with crème fraîche to create a contrast between the cream's acidity and the richness of the tart. If you prefer the English version, serve the slices with a scoop of ice cream.

What starter goes well with a tarte tatin?

To start the meal, you can serve an endive salad with walnuts.

What type of pastry is needed for tarte tatin?

I prefer this version with a magic dough rather than the classic shortcrust pastry because it is simpler to make and above all it does not require resting time.

How do you unmold a tarte tatin?

Remove the tarte tatin from the mold while it's still hot. If you wait, the caramel will harden and the tart will break when you try to remove it from the mold.

Why is my tarte tatin releasing water?

There are several reasons why your tarte tatin might be releasing water. Either you didn't pre-cook the apples, or you didn't create a vent in the center of the tart to allow the water to escape, or the pan isn't suitable. You should choose a metal pan, which will conduct steam better than silicone, glass, or earthenware pans.

A brief history of tarte tatin

At the end of the 19th century, the Tatin sisters, Stéphanie and Caroline, ran a hotel-restaurant in a small village in Sologne, in the Loir-et-Cher region. Their specialty? An apple tart, a favorite among the local hunters, who often came to enjoy it. Absentmindedly, one of the sisters apparently put the apple tart in the oven without adding the pastry.

In practice, this meant a mold filled with apples, butter, and sugar. Naturally, after a while, she realized her mistake and decided to add the pastry, but the apples had already had plenty of time to caramelize. To fool the customers, she inverted the tart before serving it. And so, the tarte tatin was born.

Well, that's just one of the legends surrounding tarte tatin. But for others, this upside-down tart existed long before the Tatin sisters were forgotten. It's even said to be one of the specialties of the Centre-Val-de-Loire region. A famous food critic published this recipe, calling it "the Tatin sisters' tart," and is said to have invented the whole legend about the sisters to make people laugh. Who's right? Who's wrong? It's a mystery…