Tarte Tatin: caramel straight in the pan, apples upside down
The upside-down apple tart in which the caramel is made in the same pan the tart is later baked in. The apples stew in that caramel for twenty minutes on the hob before they ever see the oven — which is why they come out amber and firm rather than watery. Two conditions for success: firm, tart apples, and caramel pulled off the heat at exactly the moment it turns amber.
Your own work in that: 30 min.
- Preparing the apples 15 min
- Caramel 10 min
- Apples on the hob 20 min
- Baking 30 min
- Resting before the flip 5 min
Step by step
0 / 8 donePrepare the apples
Peel the apples, halve them and scoop out the cores with a melon baller or a small knife. Sprinkle with lemon juice. Heat the oven to 200 °C.
Ingredients: 1200 g firm, tart apples · 150 g sugar · 80 g butter · ½ pcs lemon, juice · 1 pinch salt · ½ tsp cinnamon
TipApples with dense, firm flesh hold their shape even after 20 minutes on the hob and 30 in the oven, and their acidity balances the sweetness of the caramel. Soft, mealy varieties (Lobo, Antonovka, McIntosh) collapse into purée in that time and the tart falls apart when you flip it.
Halves without cores, sprinkled with lemonMake the caramel in the pan
In a 24 cm cast-iron pan melt the butter over medium heat, sprinkle the sugar evenly over it with a pinch of salt. Heat 6–8 minutes, swirling the pan (not stirring with a spoon), until the mixture goes from cloudy and sandy through pale straw to the amber of strong tea. Take it off the heat at once.
TipCaramel is amber and smells nutty at around 170–175 °C, and above 180 °C it darkens fast and turns bitter — the whole difference is about 30 seconds. Watch the colour, not the clock, and remember the caramel keeps cooking for a moment after it leaves the burner.
Amber, not dark: half a minute apartPack the apples in tightly
Arrange the apple halves on the hot caramel cut side up, tightly against one another in a ring, wedging the rest into the centre. The apples shrink by about a third, so at the start they must be packed so tightly they barely fit. Dust with cinnamon.
Ingredients: 1200 g firm, tart apples · 150 g sugar · 80 g butter · ½ pcs lemon, juice · 1 pinch salt · ½ tsp cinnamon
Cut side up, packed like a mosaicStew on the hob
Return the pan to medium heat and cook 20 minutes, uncovered. The caramel will bubble, the apples release juice, and the liquid gradually evaporates and thickens into syrup. Every few minutes baste the apples by tilting the pan and spooning caramel over them.
TipThis is the crucial step: it is where the water in the apples evaporates. Skip it (apples straight into the oven) and you get a tart with thin juice standing under the pastry and pale, watered-down caramel.
Juice evaporating, caramel thickeningCover with pastry
Cut a round of puff pastry 2 cm wider than the pan. Lay it over the apples and push the edges down inside the pan, along the walls, with the back of a spoon. Prick 5 or 6 steam holes with a fork.
Ingredients: 280 g puff pastry · 200 ml whipping cream (30%)
TipThe tucked-in edge becomes a rim after flipping and holds the apples and caramel in place. The pastry must be cold when it meets the hot pan — warm pastry melts the butter in its layers and won't rise.
Edges tucked inside, holes for steamBake
Put the pan in the oven and bake 25–30 minutes at 200 °C, until the pastry is risen, deep golden and dry, and the caramel bubbles around the sides.
Flip after five minutes
Take it out and wait exactly 5 minutes. Cover the pan with a flat plate larger than it is, hold it with a cloth and turn it over in one confident movement. If an apple stays behind in the pan, simply put it back in place.
TipFive minutes is the window: sooner and the boiling caramel spits while the apples slide, later and the caramel glues the tart to the pan for good. If it does stick, set the pan back on the burner for 30 seconds to soften the caramel.
Exactly five minutes, then one confident moveServe warm
Serve lukewarm with softly whipped cream, crème fraîche or vanilla ice cream. Tarte Tatin does not keep: by the next day the pastry under the apples has gone soft. If you must, refresh it 8 minutes at 180 °C.
Ingredients: 280 g puff pastry · 200 ml whipping cream (30%)
Lukewarm, with cream or ice cream
Before you start
With pears
1.2 kg firm pears (Conference) instead of apples, and shorten the hob stage to 15 minutes — pears hold less water and break down faster.
Dry caramel
The version for the practised: melt the sugar alone without butter and add the butter only once it has coloured. The caramel is deeper and less sweet, but easier to burn.
Without an ovenproof pan
Make the caramel in a saucepan and pour it into the base of a 24 cm solid-bottomed tin (not a springform — caramel leaks out). Stew the apple halves for 15 minutes in an ordinary frying pan first so their juice evaporates, and only then pack them tightly onto the caramel in the tin.
