Apple Week at Maggie's: Tarte Tatin

Quicksearch

Blog Administration

RSS Readers

Sunday, November 9. 2014

Apple Week at Maggie's: Tarte Tatin

It's the peak of apple season in Yankeeland, and the best use for apples is Apple Pie and Tarte Tatin, which is sort of a semi-burned upside-down apple pie. Other than just eating one off the tree.

The Tarte Tatin was supposedly invented by mistake. I have tried to make them many times, but I can never get the hard crispy caramelization on the apples that I seek: I just get a browned upside-down apple pie - a gooey mush that sticks to the pan and makes for a mess of a presentation (but tastes good anyway).

Hard apples - not cooking apples, high heat and an iron skillet seem to be important. Some people seem to have no trouble getting it right, but I never do.

Here's a recipe. If you can make it right, it ain't too terribly bad with a scoop of homemade vanilla ice cream on the side.

My chef friend advises making them with a basic Flan Pastry, aka Chef's Pastry. Chef claims that once you've had a good Tarte Tatin, you'll never go back to apple pie with its overdose of pastry.

Posted by Bird Dog in Food and Drink, Our Essays at 15:34 | Comments (10) | Trackbacks (0)

Trackbacks

Trackback specific URI for this entry

No Trackbacks

Comments

Display comments as (Linear | Threaded)

High heat and reducing the liquid down to a thick syrup before adding the crust and putting it in the oven... may even need to bake it a few minutes before adding the crust. and you have to let it cool in the pan too cool for 30 minutes at least... 10 isn't enough

#1 oceanguy (Link) on 2008-09-22 09:03 (Reply)

Regarding the prob, I think 'oceanguy' is on the right track when he talks of "high heat." My grandmother used to make a scratch chocolate cake with an icing that caramelized and got rock hard, and she paid lots of attention to the thermometer stuck in the icing pan. It had to get high enough, but not too high. Then, as 'oceanguy' said, she let it cool for a while -- but not too long -- before spreading it on the cake. My feeling is that the caramelization process has to start 'setting' before it can be put in place. If it's disturbed too soon, the chemical process is interrupted and you end up with a goopy -- if delicious -- mess.

Here ya go.

#2 Dr. Mercury (Link) on 2008-09-22 10:14 (Reply)

One of my favorite skillet recipes! However, I use a non stick skillet, and Grandma's pie crust recipe instead of puff pastry.

I also toss the apples with a pinch of salt and sometimes cinnamon before I put them in the skillet. The salt helps breakdown the apples.

Another favorite skillet recipe is Pommes Anna!

#3 Andrew on 2008-09-22 12:23 (Reply)

The big mistake is too much apple or ones that are too juicy. That results in too much fruit, or too much gloop, for what is essentially a way to eat sweetened, greasy flour, accented by the fruit.

ie, it's a 'cake' dish, not a 'fruit' dish.

#4 Fred Z on 2011-09-25 21:42 (Reply)

It would be remiss of me to neglect to mention Julia Child's Tarte Tatin episode from 1971 in which she makes every mistake in the book. It's a humor classic.

#5 ahem on 2011-09-28 22:04 (Reply)

Don't waste your time on fancy stuff requiring thermometers and such!

Make a gallette or crostata ("rustic") tart instead. Its far easier and tastes more of apples: just a crust with the edges folded up around a sliced apples with a brown(or cane) sugar, cinnamon and butter topping on the apples. Or use maple surple instead of sugar.

#6 Earl T on 2011-10-09 16:10 (Reply)

Tarte tatin is hard to beat: that wonderful caramel flavor on the apples. On a related note, most cookies and cakes are hugely improved by browning whatever butter is supposed to go into the recipe.

#7 Texan99 on 2013-10-19 10:40 (Reply)

And a 2014 update: what's the crazy notion about "excessive" pie crust? Can there be such a thing?

#7.1 Texan99 on 2014-11-10 09:57 (Reply)

I like Texan 99's comment, but surprised that I've never heard of Tarte Tatin before this.

#8 LP on 2014-11-09 21:12 (Reply)

Non-Americans simply do not understand American pie at all - why take a flaky version of puff pastry and use it for a tart?

(and after living abroad I kinda see their point...)

Regarding tarte tatin -
1) I second the gallette/crostata suggestion, which saves some time. But I've had great tarte tatin where the dough was roughly patted out by had to a thick disc, so that's also easy.

2) Cut a circle of baking paper to fit the bottom of your skillet. Butter both sides. When the apples are done, empty the skillet and put this in, then assemble. I know this disrupts the single-pan goodness, but... it works.

#9 Ben David on 2014-11-11 06:01 (Reply)

Add Comment

Name
Email	(Your e-mail will not show in your comment)
Homepage
In reply to
Comment	By commenting on this site you agree to the site rules listed here. Email addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for email notifications. Quick reference guide: [i] italics [/i], [b] bold [/b], [u] underline [/u], [url] (web address) [/url]. More tips here. Enclosing asterisks marks text as bold (word), underscore are made via _word_. E-Mail addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for E-Mail notifications. To prevent automated Bots from commentspamming, please enter the string you see in the image below in the appropriate input box. Your comment will only be submitted if the strings match. Please ensure that your browser supports and accepts cookies, or your comment cannot be verified correctly. Enter the string from the spam-prevention image above: BBCode format allowed
	Remember Information? Subscribe to this entry

Maggie's Farm

Our Recent Essays Behind the Front Page

Categories

Quicksearch

Links

Blog Administration

RSS Readers

Sunday, November 9. 2014

Apple Week at Maggie's: Tarte Tatin