Foolproof Tarte Tatin

What do you get after two tries and a minor injury to the pointer finger? Hopefully, a moderately successful Foolproof Tarte Tatin like I did. Aside from the fact that the picture of this recipe could also have easily been the book cover of Dessert Person, this dessert is also a notable one of the late and great Julia Child…meaning…I did not want to screw it up! A Tarte Tatin just looks French, and to me, French desserts are upheld to a higher, more sophisticated standard I aspire to better understand.

This recipe is relatively simple, but it requires a lot a big steps to bring it all together. I highly recommend setting aside an entire afternoon and evening for it, accounting for basic life interruptions throughout the process (you know, feeding the dog, changing the TV channel, husband wanting to start cooking dinner, the usual). One way to simplify it is making the Rough Puff Pastry a day or two before. Otherwise, before you know it, you’ve spent a half hour cutting apples, 20 minutes on caramel sauce, 45 minutes on the pastry, and another hour between the assembling and oven time—add in God only knows what else you’ll get distracted by and suddenly, five hours have passed.

The first time I made Claire’s version, I just started from the first direction without much planning ahead. I happened to find Pink Lady apples (I didn’t realize how much a grocery store changes its apple variations each week before tackling all these apple recipes). I really liked the process of slicing off the ends of the apple first, then peeling it before halfing it; I found this very efficient and will continue to use this method. Just a day before I made this recipe, the metal cannoli forms I ordered for a different recipe (not related to this book) arrived. These seemed like a useful way to core my apples, so I carefully poked them through once the apples were halved to remove the seeds and core. I was slightly confused on whether I was placing the apples correctly in the saucepan for the roasting. The more I read it over, I felt I had it correct by standing them up; I was concerned, however, they wouldn’t entirely get all the juices from the maple syrup, brandy and apple cider vinegar if they weren’t facing down.

While the apples were roasting, I worked on my Rough Puff Pastry. This was my first time making any dough out of Dessert Person. Now that I’ve made several, this pastry is my favorite. As my grandma recently assured me, the key to a good dough is cold ingredients, and that is definitely the case with this one. I found this dough is relatively easy to put together, and it also rolls out very nicely without shrinking. The best part is if it’s too mushy, you can throw it back in the fridge and start again with a little more flour. It’s also fun to roll out into layers, as you can see the future flakes that will emerge once it’s baked.

The apples came out of the oven smelling delicious and perfectly al dente like Claire directed. However, I made the mistake of placing the saucepan on top of my stove for a few minutes before putting the plated apples in the refrigerator. Without thinking, I burned my hand grabbing the hot handle, thinking it was just another pan on the stove! So if you take the pan out of the oven and place it on the stove for a minute, place the handle away from you as a reminder that it is still very hot (this was not even the minor injury that I alluded to at the beginning, that’s still to come).

I saved the juices from the saucepan and cooked those to make them into a syrup, but once again this didn’t seem to thicken as much as I expected. Maybe my expectations for syrup are just too high.

The process of making the caramel really mesmerized me. I had never sprinkled sugar across a sauce pan and just watched it turn into a sauce (keep in mind I had tiny remnants of the glaze still in this saucepan). Adding the butter to this was like a science experiment with how it sizzled marvelously. I was really pleased with how this caramel mixture turned out, as the amber tone was similar to the picture in Dessert Person.

Like Claire mentioned, the apples definitely shrunk down while roasting; this is why it’s a good idea to roast more than you think you may need, in case you have extra room in your saucepan. I struggled a little in pushing the Rough Puff Pastry into the inner edges with a spoon, but it seemed to look alright once I was finished (Side note, am I the only one who gets Snow White vibes when assembling anything in the realms of pie?). After letting the tart refrigerate for 15 minutes, I baked it for about 40 minutes, reducing the oven temperature about halfway through.

I let the tart sit for around 10 minutes after taking it out, with the top later of pastry looking golden brown and smelling delicious. I spent that time thinking through how I would invert it over the sink with a cooling rack; usually I do this with a cake that does not have any boiling liquid inside. I made sure to cover my arms with my long sleeves and oven mitts, thinking through how I would do the flip once I had it all in place—and it was successful! Definitely hold it over the sink for a minute; there is a lot of juice that will want to be released.

As for the moment of truth, the reveal of the tart was underwhelming to say the least. It was almost entirely black! Everything had gone so well, and I really didn’t feel I messed up any of the directions. I managed to try a bite that wasn’t burned, and it was really good. With the puff pastry?! Omg. Dare I say to any apple pie lovers…it was so much better than apple pie. The French know what they’re doing with des pommes. However, I could also taste the hint of burned apple. Aside from the fact the pictures I took of the finished product looked horrendous, I knew I had to try this one again. I was pleased the directions didn’t overwhelm me, and that’s why I believed I could get it right the second time around.

Before I started again (and waited for more Pink Lady apples at the grocery store), I debated what it could have been that made the apples burn so badly. Yes, perhaps I kept them in the oven too long for my oven, but that didn’t seem entirely accurate since I followed the directions according to what I’ve found to be the right ratio to what Claire recommends. I looked again at the directions and noticed how Claire used a skillet. After more research at how other people have made this recipe, I realized an enameled cast iron skillet may be the solution to better baking. I had already noticed how much better my Le Creuset Dutch oven cooked soup, perhaps the same could be said for a skillet with a Tarte Tatin. Fortunately for me, I had some gift cards left from our wedding that just about covered a skillet, so voila! I am now the proud owner of a beautiful Le Creuset enameled cast iron skillet. And thus, my voyage to making the perfect Foolproof Tarte Tatin continued on.

But it started with a minor injury, thanks to the cannoli forms.

Once again, I used the cannoli forms for taking out the apple cores. As I was pushing out the apple from the inside with the handle of a fork, the force of pushing it out ended with the cannoli form mildly stabbing my finger. I started bleeding, but luckily had not touched anything else. After cleaning up my space, bandaged and all, I returned to work (but that tiny cut really did hurt!). I should also note this is NOT part of Claire’s instructions to use a cannoli form to core apples; this was all of my own doing (and stupidity).

I definitely noticed some differences using a different skillet. For one, it just looked prettier. That instantly gives me more hope. Aside from good looks, it also seemed the apples roasted a little slower this time, as they took a couple more minutes.

I was a little unsure about how my caramel sauce turned out; it seemed to turn to the amber color very fast, but I went along with it anyways. I ended up having some extra apples when I fit everything into the skillet before placing the Rough Puff Pastry over the top.

I only baked it for about 37 minutes this time, as the pastry was golden brown and the caramel sauce was crackling. After a successful invert over the sink, the final reveal was…better.

There were lighter apples, but I wish I could just rewind and give the Tarte Tatin like ten minutes less in the oven. It probably would have been perfect. I think this goes back to what Claire said in the beginning as well—it’s easy to screw up Tarte Tatin! There are many different elements that could impact the outcome from the caramelization, the oven time, or the apple moisture. It’s hard to say what made my Foolproof Tarte Tatin semi-par, but like I said, after two tries and a minor injury, I consider this a…memorable experience!

Turns out I’m not the only one to accidentally burn my hand on the saucepan! Hear Claire’s thoughts about the Tarte Tatin in her YouTube video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiQR-F5wqvk