Best Tarte Tatin Recipe Ever!

Legend has it that the tarte tatin was a happy accident! It was created in the 1880’s at the Hotel Tatin in Lamotte-Beuvron, about 100 miles (160 km) south of Paris. The hotel was owned by the Tatin sisters. One of them, Stéphanie Tatin did most of the cooking. Overworked one day, she started to make a traditional apple pie but left the apples cooking in butter and sugar for too long. It was too late to start again so 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 cleverly turned the tart upside down and served it. Her dish was a huge success with that day’s diners and it has never looked back.

A true classic French dessert, French Chef Daniel Galmiche adds his own touch to the traditional apple pie to tickle your taste buds and bring you the best Tarte Tatin recipe ever!

Preparation time 15 minutes, plus chilling
Cooking time 1 hour

Ingredients

220g/7¾oz ready-made puff pastry
Plain flour, for dusting
120g/4¼oz/heaped ½ cup caster sugar
40g/1½oz unsalted butter
1 rosemary sprig, leaves only, roughly chopped
3–4 apples such as Cox, Reinette or Golden Delicious, peeled, quartered and cored
Large pinch of toasted flaked almonds, plus extra for sprinkling
Crème Fraiche, to Serve

Method

Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface, then cut out a circle slightly bigger than the size of a 20cm/8in flameproof baking or tatin dish. Roll the pastry over the rolling pin and place the pastry on a baking sheet, cover with cling film and chill for 25–30 minutes. This will prevent the pastry from shrinking during cooking.

Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/gas 5. Melt the sugar gently in the baking or tatin dish over a medium heat until golden brown, remove from the heat and stir in the butter. Sprinkle about a quarter of the rosemary leaves over. Arrange the apples tightly along the edge of the baking or tatin dish in a circle, then make smaller circles of tightly fitted apples within this circle until the based is covered and all the apples are used. Bake in the preheated oven for 35 minutes.

Remove from the oven, sprinkle the remaining rosemary and toasted flaked almonds over the apples and place the pastry on top, pushing the edges into the dish. Return the tin to the oven and bake for a further 20 minutes until the pastry is golden brown and crisp.

Remove the tart from the oven and leave to cool for a few minutes. Put an upside-down plate the size of the dish on top of the tart and, holding both the plate and dish, flip to unmould onto the plate and sprinkle with extra almonds. Et voilà – a perfect tarte tatin with rosemary. Enjoy while warm. Delicious with crème fraîche.

This recipe was taken from The Good Life France Magazine September 2015 – free to read online and download – full of fabulous features and delicious recipes…