Recipe | Sweet
Tarte Tatin (Bernard Laevens)
Imagine going out to the pub and when you get home your new flatmate had left
an exquisite homemade French apple pastry for you to sample. This was my introduction to
Bernard's cooking and to Tarte Tatin. Yum. Tarte Tatin is best done in a pan that can go on the
hob then directly in the oven. You can buy Tarte Tatin pans, or use a heat resistant frying pan,
or just use two pans and a bit of mucking around in the middle.
I tweaked Bernard's recipe a bit to cope with my 28 cm Tarte Tatin pan and with Galit's desire for
a higher proportion of fruit.
Pastry (Pâte Brisée)
1 cup Flour (brown and/or white - although brown flour won't make this
recipe any more healthy)
Pinch of salt
25 g Butter
1T Sugar (optional)
Mix butter into dry ingredients until looks like small bread crumbs.
Tiny bit of cold water (maybe 2-3 Tablespoons)
[Optional] 1 egg yolk
Add slowly until a non-sticky pastry is obtained (firm but neither sticky nor dry).
Rest pastry at least 30 minutes in a warm place.
Roll out (1 mm) to use on Tarte (see below)
Tarte
Sugar (brown and/or white, although I prefer brown)
Layer thickly over base of baking dish (my pan needs 1 cup)
Butter in small pieces
Dot thickly over sugar (my pan needs 75 g)
Apples, peeled and sliced (optionally brushed with lemon juice to prevent browning) (see note below for quantity). You can use other fruit , bananas are good.
Layer over butter and sugar
Cook on hob until butter and sugar start to caramelise (20- 30 min)
Thin layer (1 mm) of pastry from above
Layer over apples.
Make holes in pastry to let steam off.
Bake in a pre-warmed oven at 200ºC for 20 minutes or until pastry has a touch of brown.
Remove from oven, put a serving plate over the top and flip the pan over so the Tarte falls onto the plate. Don't leave it too long because the caramel will harden making the flipping exercise a tad difficult.
Note on quantities
There is some disagreement amongst those dear to me about the exact proportion of pastry to fruit. Use the quantity of pastry as above, but vary the number of apples depending on your taste for fruitiness (see below). Personally I like all of the variations. Bernard says "If you put too much apple, it is not a tatin anymore, it is a caramelized apple pie, it is slightly different, but as good."
| Option | Number of apples | How prepared |
|---|---|---|
| Bernard style | 1-4 apples depending on size of pan | thinly sliced |
| Galit style for 28 cm pan | 10-12 apples | 7 cut in half, in one layer, with round side down, plus another 3-4 thinly sliced and layered on top of these. Alternatively halve all of them and pack them tightly standing on their sides. |
| Compromise for 28 cm pan | 7-8 apples | cut in half, in one layer with round side down |
Puff pastry variation
- Assemble butter, sugar and apples in tarte tatin pan as above.
About 350 grams of Puff pastry rolled out (replaces Pâte Brisée)
- Layer over apples.
Make holes in pastry to let steam off.
Rest in fridge for 30 min.
Cook on hob until butter and sugar start to caramelise (15- 20 min) - lift edge of puff pastry to check.
Bake in a pre-warmed oven at 220ºC for 15 minutes or until pastry has risen and is golden brown.
Remove from oven, put a serving plate over the top and flip the pan over so the Tarte falls onto the plate. Don't leave it too long because the caramel will harden making the flipping exercise a tad difficult.