An upside down apple tart from the Centre region of France. It was made famous by the Tatin sisters, and legend has it that that Stéphanie Tatin, had started making an apple tar, 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. After turning out the upside down tart, she was
surprised to find how much the hotel guests appreciated the dessert.
For a savoury version, use a puff pastry and tomatoes, courgettes, endives...
- 280g plain flour
- 1/2 t salt
- 1 T organic sugar
- 110g cold unsalted butter, diced
- 120ml ice water
- 6/8 Golden Delicious or Boscop apples
- 30g butter
- 30g sugar
Method:
For the pastry, place the plain flour, salt and sugar in a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Stir lightly to combine. Add the butter and pulse until the butter is in small bits the size of peas. With the motor running, pour the ice water down the feed tube and pulse just until the dough starts to come together. Remove the dough and quickly knead into a ball. Place in a bowl and cover with a silicon cover or plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Prepare the apples, peel, cut into quarters and remove the core and seeds. In a cast iron pan or a tatin pan, lightly fry the apples until golden in colour.
Add the sugar and caramelise the apples.
Roll out the pastry to the size of the pan and cover the apples taking care to tuck in the edges.
Place in the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes until golden brown.
Remove from the oven and place a serving platter over the pan and flip 😅
Serve warm with vanilla ice-cream or fresh cream.
