Tarte Tatin

Prep time 20 minutes Total time 50 minutes Serves 1 pie - 6 portions

Legend has it that the Tatin sisters (Caroline & Stéphanie) of Lamotte-Beuvron, France, invented Tarte Tatin during the 19th century. One of the sisters supposedly dropped a pie just before serving it and decided to save it by serving it upside-down. Reality, unfortunately, is far less romantic. Upside-down apple and pear pastries had been around for quite some time in the Sologne region and the Tatin sisters were most likely just the first ones to commercialize the famous pie.

Here’s an easy way to make your own melt in your mouth upside-down caramelized apple pie.

- Marie des neiges Magnan

Ingredients

  • 10 Belmac apples from Verger de Hudson or McIntosh apples from Warner’s Farm
  • 1 cup organic cane sugar from Yupik
  • ¼ cup water
  • ¼ cup unsalted butter from Laiterie Chagnon
  • 1 block frozen puff pastry, or a ball of pie dough from Sans Gluten / Sans Lactose
  • 2 tbsp. organic unbleached stone ground white flour from Seigneurie des Aulnaies

Instructions

  • Thaw puff pastry or pie dough.
  • Preheat oven to 375°F

  • Pare and core apples, and cut into large wedges.
  • In a cast iron pan, heat sugar and water, and let simmer without stirring on medium-high heat. Once the liquid becomes amber-coloured, remove pan from heat, add butter and let it melt. Then, add apple wedges, cut side up, cramming them together a bit, as they’ll reduce in size when cooking. Two apple layers are recommended to avoid holes in your pie. Return pan to low heat, cook 5 more minutes, and remove from heat.

  • Dust a working surface with a bit of flour and roll out the puff pastry or pie dough with a rolling pin. Cut a circle a little larger than the circumference of your pan into the pastry, and set it over the apples, tucking in the edges of the dough between the apples and the rim of the pan.
  • Bake 20 to 25 minutes, or until pastry is golden-coloured. Let cool 5 minutes.

  • Set a serving plate on top of the pan (inside of plate making contact with pastry), hold in place firmly, and turn over quickly so that the pastry ends up at the bottom of the plate and the apples on top (be careful, cast iron pans are heavy and you could ruin your pie and your toes). If a few apples slip out of place, make everything look pretty again, and serve with crème fraîche or French-style plain fresh cheese from Riviera.

Bon appétit!