In my travels around
the world, I have frequently encountered tarte Tatin on the menu. Since I can
hardly resist temptation, I often
ordered it, and almost as often ended up disappointed. What reached my table was a soggy mess, under-caramelized
and pallid, with none of the glorious hazel hues and crunchy notes I remembered
from my youth. It got to be too much...
and this website was born.
Baking a gorgeous tarte Tatin is not complicated. It is, one might say, as easy as apple pie,
when keeping to a few simple rules. The
main challenge is to evacuate the steam.
Baking 3 or 4 pounds of apples with sugar and butter releases a large
quantity of steam. It is critical to remove
it. Recipes that trap it guarantee a
mushy disaster.
 
Picking the right apples is essential. They should not turn into apple sauce, and
should not release excessive amounts of water, which greatly complicates the
baking. Two varieties, the Reine des
Reinettes (King of the Pippins), and the Calville have been preferred from the
start. Sadly, they are seldom seen
outside France, and are increasingly hard to find there. As a result, cooks, even in Lamotte-Beuvron, use
Gala, Golden, Granny Smith, and sometimes Belle de Boskoop, a Dutch variety. My own preference is for native apples. Each region has them, and they are well worth
seeking. Check farmers' markets, local
orchards, and food coops. They don't
need to be organic. They just need to be good. Experiment. You might discover a
unique savor that will set your Tarte Tatin apart, while helping keep alive prized
fruit that might otherwise disappear. Barring
local gems, my next pick is the plebeian Golden that is sometimes derided by food snobs, who object to its omnipresence.
There are undoubtedly some Golden that fail to live up to their name, but
the variety possesses great finesse that rivals the best.
To peel or not to peel? Oddly enough, most contemporary cookbooks and
chefs recommend peeling, though none of the early recipes say anything about
it. My own experimentation suggests
peeling is unnecessary, and actually deleterious to the quality of the
tarte. Apple peel is rich in pectin, a
mucilaginous compound that makes marmalade jammy. When the peel is left on, the pectin combines
with caramel to give a richer, smoother texture. It also keeps it from running. Peeling could be a hang-over from the
past. Some authors used to recommend it to rid
apples of chemical residues. Perhaps,
this might have been wise advice decades ago, but is no longer true. Modern crop protection products act
systemically, through the sap, and cannot be washed off or peeled off. Nor do they need to, as they quickly
metabolize into innocuous derivatives that makes them safer than barbecue smoke
or sunshine.
Just apples? It should
be noted that, although apples are the most common garnish for tarte Tatin,
they are by no means the only one. There
is strong evidence that the sisters baked their tarte with pears, peaches and probably
other fruits as well. After all, cooks love
to experiment, and the Sologne produced enough fruit to entice them. Beside apples and pears, one might suggest apricots
and quinces as well as pineapple or mangoes for the more adventurous. Whether the
result should still be called a tarte Tatin is a personal decision. I would be cautious, but the sisters might
have loved it.
The dough. When it comes
to food I am a purist. I like mine
little processed, and cook everything from scratch, unless I establish through
experimentation that a canned or frozen item is better. I have therefore made my own crusts for
decades, until recently when I noticed rounds of frozen dough at my favorite
grocery store. Since their quality is
usually high, I gave it a try, and was
astounded. I put it side-by-side with my
own, and could not tell them apart. I now use their frozen dough, but for those
not fortunate to have such supply available, here is a dependable recipe: "Mix 3 cups (11 oz) unbleached flour with
half-a-teaspoon salt. Cut up 6 oz cold
unsalted butter into small cubes. Add to
flour mixture. Using old-fashioned
potato masher such as the one pictured to right, mash flour-butter mixture
until butter lumps have disappeared, and mixture has homogeneous sandy texture
(3 to 5 minutes). Add 3.5 to 4.5 oz iced
water to mix. Stir gently with spoon. Sandy mixture should start aggregating. Press it into a ball with your hands. Add
more (or less) water as required to get ball to form. If too sticky dust with flour. At that stage,
place dough on floured board, and with palm of hand press small amounts of
dough forward (away from you), about 2 to 3 oz at a time. (This operation,
called 'fraisage', homogenizes the dough). Bring dough back into a ball and
repeat once. Put dough ball into 1-gallon Ziploc bag and roll it out to get a
disk that fills bag. Chill for 30 to 60
minutes. Bring back to floured board.
Free dough by cutting Ziploc bag away and roll out to a 12-inch disk. Trim off
excess dough. The disk is ready. Notes:
the use of a potato masher is a tip that greatly improves the quality of
your dough and simplifies its preparation. The use of a Ziploc bag, and the
'pre-rolling' of the dough will make the final rollout a cinch.
The ingredients
For a 12-inch cast iron skillet:
- 8 medium-sized Golden apples (about 3 Ibs)
- 3.5 oz (100 g) of sugar (preferably turbinado or
brown)
- 2 oz (60 g) of unsalted butter, some of which will be used to butter skillet
- A 12" (30 cm) round of dough about
1/16th-inch (1.5mm) thick
Putting it together
- Butter skillet generously
- Pour sugar into buttered skillet and shake to
distribute evenly
- Rinse apples to remove dust; dry, quarter, and
remove pips
- Lay quartered apples in single layer into
skillet. Use smaller wedges to fill gaps so that dough rests on flat bed
- Dot skillet with rest of butter
- Preheat oven to 400 F (200 C)
- Put skillet over lively fire on top of stove. Within minutes, contents will be bubbling,
and steam billowing out. Watch as color of
syrupy liquid inside skillet slowly turns to golden. take off fire when it reaches a nice hazel
hue, somewhere between caramel and chocolate.
Typically takes 20 to 30 minutes.
By then, volume of steam should be down considerably.
- Overlay round of dough. Tuck in edge slightly with wooden spoon.
- Put in warm oven until crust reaches nice golden
color, about 25 to 30 minutes
- Remove from oven, cover with inverted dish, and
flip over right away
- If any apple chunks remains stuck to pan, remove
with tongs and put back on tarte
- Let cool for a moment and serve warm, by itself
Bon Appétit!
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