Tarte Tatin

Tarte Tatin

Tarte Tatin was created accidentally at the Hotel Tatin in Lamotte-Beuvron, France, about 160 km south of Paris, in the 1880s. The hotel was run by two sisters, Stéphanie and Caroline Tatin. One day, Stéphanie started making a traditional apple pie but left the apples cooking in butter and sugar for too long. Smelling the burning, she tried to rescue the dish by putting the pastry base on top of the pan of apples, quickly finishing the cooking by putting the whole pan in the oven. She served her guests the unusual dessert hot from the oven. They loved it!

Here is a quick Tarte Tatin recipe using readymade pastry.

(for a 18cm flan tin)

Ingredients

3 apples

3 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons sugar

1 sheet readymade short crust pastry (thawed if frozen)

Whipped cream to serve

Method

Peel, quarter and core apples. Slice thinly.

Pre-heat the oven to 200C °

In a tin flan dish put butter and sugar together and spread evenly on base of tin.

Arrange apples attractively over the butter and sugar layer.

Cover whole tin with the pastry and tuck the edges in. Poke a few holes on pastry to let steam escape.

Put the tin on a stove medium heat to caramelize butter and sugar – be careful, make sure you use an oven glove. This would take 7-8 minutes.

When the steam from the apples comes out rapidly, put the tin in the hot oven. Bake for 25-30 minutes until the pastry turns golden brown.

Put a plate that is bigger than a flan dish upside down over and flip it over.

Serve with whipped cream.

Tip Use puff pastry if desired.