La tarte des demoiselles Tatin

At the end of the XIXth century, two sisters Caroline and Stéphanie Tatin ran this charming country hotel in the village of Lamotte-Beuvron situated in the beautiful region of Sologne, in France. Stéphanie was in charge of managing the hotel and Caroline cooked and prepared meals for the many hunters who spent the week end in Sologne. One day, there were so many clients that Caroline got a bit distracted and while making an apple tart, she did it the wrong way, put the apples first in the mold then the pastry. She got all confused and turned it over before presenting it to the customers who found this dessert truly delicious : the caramelized apples were pleasantly sweet and soft. And a new sweet star was born : the tarte Tatin which Curnonsky, the famous gastronomy critic baptized the tarte des demoiselles Tatin in 1926.

Actually the anecdotes vary as to how the tarte was created. Some say, in their haste, the sisters dropped the tarte on the floor and put it back in the wrong order in the mold to bake a bit more. Others said Caroline let the tarte burn in the oven then added more pastry on top.....
Anyway, we must thank them for having created such a great dessert which on top of that is very simple to make...Ready ?

This is the recipe I use to make my tarte Tatin (a combination of Pierre Hermé's recipe and others recipe found on the net). I apologize to all my readers who are not familiar with the European measures but I don't know how to convert grams in cups !

For 6 persons, you need:

1,5 kg of apples (golden or reinette- the kind of apple which bakes well)
250g of pâte brisée (or you can buy an already made pastry roll)
250g of sugar
130g of butter

First, prepare your pâte brisée with 190g of butter, 250g of flour and 5 cl of water or milk.

Cut the butter in very small dice and crush it with a spatula in a bowl.
Pour the liquid little by little on the butter and move with the spatula.
Sift the flour and add it little by little.
Don't work the dough too much.
Make sure all the ingredients are well mixed together and that the texture is homogeneous. Roll the dough into a ball.
Wrap it into a plastic film and let it rest in the fridge for 2h.

Note: it's important to let the dough rest because then the pastry is much more elastical

Preheat the oven at 180ºC.

Peel the apples and cut them in quarters of halves.

In a pan, cook the butter and sugar together until you obtain a brown caramel. Make sure it doesn't get too dark, otherwise the caramel will taste bitter.

Pour the caramel into the mold (25cm diameter).

Place the sliced apples on the caramel and bake for 50mn to 1h at 180ºC.

Take out the mold from the oven and let it cool.

Extend the dough (it must be 2,5mm thick) then cover the apples with it. Make sure you cover the mold very well.

Bake for 30mn until the dough is golden.

Take out the mold out of the oven. Let it cool a bit. Turn the pie upside down and eat it warm or lukewarm.

In France, the tarte Tatin is often served with cream or a scoop of vanilla ice cream but the purists claim this is not the real tarte Tatin...oh well...sometimes it's good to transgress traditional rules !

Bon appétit !


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pic # 1 is from the official site of Lamotte-Beuvron town