The very simple but best recipe of the Tarte Tatin

You all think that making a Tarte Tatin is a difficult thing, this is not the case with my very simple but the best recipe.
Many fables surround this mythical pie which is cooked “upside-down” but eaten “right side up”…

Birth of a legend

The accidental invention of this dessert by the Tatin sisters is a story invented by the culinary critic Curnonsky who launched the fashion for this dessert in Paris at the beginning of the 20th century.
These sisters ran the family establishment, the Hotel Tatin. Caroline, the eldest, received the clientele, while Stéphanie was busy in the kitchen preparing the famous melting and caramelized apple pies.

According to the traditional story, the sisters were preparing a dinner for the hunters and in their haste, Stéphanie forgot to put the pie dough at the bottom of the tart tin and in the heat of the moment, put her mold filled only with apples and sugar in the oven. Realizing that she had forgotten, she simply added the dough on top of the apples and finished baking the pie that way.

The “upside-down” apple or pear pie would, in fact, be an old regional specialty! The Tatin sisters would simply have made it famous.

Gastronomic espionage…?

It was at this time that the owner of the Maxim’s Restaurant in Paris, a certain Louis Vaudable, discovered this tart during a hunting meal.
Under the spell of this tasty preparation, he asked for the recipe. But the sisters kindly refused.
He then sent one of his pastry cooks to the inn of the sisters. He pretended to be a gardener looking for work… and discovered the secret of making this famous tart. The Vaudale family, copycat but honest, called it “Tarte des demoiselles Tatin”.

It was then the famous culinary critic Maurice-Edmond Sailland, known as Curnonsky “Prince of Gastronomes” who passed it on to posterity. He published the recipe in one of his books and distributed it in Paris and to all fine gourmets. It is even said that he invented the whole story, notably the clumsiness of the Tatin sisters, to amuse journalists!

This dessert is a classic of brasseries and restaurants. It can be served with a ramekin of fresh cream or a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

To make the pie, you need apples with firm flesh, which hold up well to cooking. The dough can be puff pastry, shortbread or shortcrust.

In any case, Caroline and Stéphanie Tatin have left us one of the most famous desserts on the planet and I am going to tell you all its secrets!

My very simple recipe but best recipe of the tarte Tatin

Ingredients :

100 g of butter: 7 tablespoons
200g of sugar: 1 cup
2 kg of apples: around 8 apples
1 teaspoon of salt

Preparation:

In a pan let melt the butter, add the apples that you have already cut in slices, and at very high temperature, and add all the sugar.

Let caramelized the apples. As soon as the apples are getting a little bit brown, you could stop the process.

You could as well directly caramelized your apples inside the mold you will use for the tart.

Ingredients for the dough :

You could make the dough by yourself, but you could as well if you will prefer to buy it! Nevertheless, I recommend you to make it as in this recipe the dough is a very important part.

200 g of wheat flour: 1and 1/2 cups

⅓ cup of water (20 cl approximately)
80 g of butter: 6 tablespoons
1 pinch of salt

½ cup of powdered sugar ( icing sugar)

Option : 1 yolk

First, you start to melt the butter with the water and salt.

Then, you pour the preparation into the flour and stir it with a fork after, you could introduce the yolk of the egg. For ending, make a ball with the dough and spread it with a rolling pin.

Now, after you put all the caramelized apples with its sauce into the tart mold, you could add the dough, on the top of your preparation of course!

Bake your tarte Tatin in a preheated oven at 180 °C- 350°F for around 40 minutes.

This dessert is a classic of brasseries and restaurants. I recommend as well to serve it with a ramekin of fresh cream, or mascarpone or even a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

For my part, I love to serve this tart with mascarpone rather than crème fraîche or ice cream.