I was impressed. Over a decade ago I was visiting a friend in France, a busy plastic surgeon. He had invited guests to dinner, and, as the guests were arriving, announced that we were having Tarte Tatin for dessert. Over the next few minutes he pulled together this delicious traditional dessert of caramelized apples and pastry with little apparent effort and no interruption of the ongoing discussion of world affairs, celebrity facelifts and who was sleeping with whom. I don’t think he even looked down.
Since then, I’ve experimented with several recipes for Tarte Tatin, many of which, even from good sources, are overly complicated or just wrong. In the end, I went back to Pierre’s very straightforward approach, with just a couple of changes in technique to reduce the risk of burning myself. This is an easy recipe, using only ingredients you’re likely to have on hand, but the results are truly delicious and a little showy. With just a bit of practice, you too can impress your guests as you deftly whip out a Tarte Tatin over cocktails and gossip.
Recipe
Ingredients
3-4 firm, tart apples, such as Granny Smith
1 cup sugar
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
about a teaspoon of lemon juice
pate brisee (pie crust –recipe follows)
Equipment
1 sturdy metal pie plate
1 cooling rack
Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 425F
2. Generously butter the pie plate.
3. Peel, quarter and core the apples. Squeeze a little lemon juice over them to prevent browning.
4. On a cool floured surface, roll out the pastry dough to a size just larger than your pie plate. It will be thicker than a pie crust. Don’t worry about tidy edges. If you’re not going to assemble your tart immediately, transfer the pastry to a baking sheet and keep it in the refrigerator until you’re ready to use it.
5. Put the sugar, lemon juice and 2-3 tablespoons of water in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan. Swirl the pan to dissolve the sugar. (It needn’t be fully dissolved, but there shouldn’t be any dry spots.) Make sure the sides of the pan aren’t splashed with any of the sugar, brushing any away with a damp pastry brush, if necessary. (Splashes will burn and can cause crystallization, dooming your caramel.)
A note on making caramel: you can make caramel simply by heating dry sugar to about 320F in any sturdy pan. Using water just slows the process, making it easier to control. It all evaporates in the end. The lemon is there for chemistry, not flavor. The acid helps prevent crystallization, which will ruin your caramel. A little light vinegar works just as well.
6. Over high heat, bring to the boil, then reduce the heat slightly and cook until a medium amber color. Stop just short of the color you would like if you were using the caramel immediately: it will continue to darken a bit as the tart bakes. Never stir the caramel.
7. Carefully pour the caramel into the pie plate and dot with pieces of the butter.
8. Place the apple quarters in the buttered caramel, round side down, starting around the edge. Crowd as many in as possible.
9. Lay the pastry over the pie plate, trim off any extreme irregularities and then tuck the edges under to fit just inside the rim, completely covering the apples. (There’s no need to be particularly neat here — this will be the bottom of the tart.)
10. Bake for 25 minutes until the crust is golden brown and the caramel is bubbling around the edges.
11. Place the tart on a cooling rack. Immediately cover with a plate larger than the pie plate, placed face down.
12. Grip the plate and the rack from both sides, squeezing the two together to hold the hot pie plate between them.
13. Swiftly and in a single motion, flip the whole assembly over and then remove the rack.
14. Lift the hot pie plate off with tongs, clean up any stray caramel on the plate and serve the tart warm or at room temperature. It’s great with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream, but I like it best plain with a cup of black coffee.
Many people make the caramel and the tart in the same oven-safe skillet. This saves some clean-up, but I think this method has three drawbacks. First, you can’t butter the pan, making unmolding the tart less reliable. Second, if it’s angled up from the pan (as most are), the handle of a skillet can prevent you getting a good seal between the plate and the pan, causing the tart to slip around when you invert it. Third, the hot handle of a skillet is a magnet for burns as you invert and unmold the tart.
Pate Brisee
(Makes two crusts –I like to keep one on hand in the freezer.)
Ingredients
2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
2 sticks of cold unsalted butter
1/4 cup ice water (or a bit more, if needed)
Instructions
1. In the bowl of a food processor, pulse the flour and salt until combined.
2. Cut the butter into chunks and place in the work bowl. Pulse until the mixture looks like coarse bread crumbs.
3. With the machine running, drizzle in the water through the feed tube, adding just enough to bring the dough together. It shouldn’t be wet or sticky. To test, squeeze a bit in your hand. If it holds together, it’s done. If not, add just a little more water until it does. Process the mixture as little as possible to achieve this.
4. Turn onto a floured surface and form into two flattened disks. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, or freeze for up to a month for later use.
