Bon Appetit has a fantastic recipe for Tarte Tatin that uses a sour cream dough for the crust. The dough is so easy to work with and comes together very quickly. The original recipe called for a 12 inch non-stick skillet. Since I didn’t have one, I modified the ingredients to fit the 10 and 14 inch All Clad pans I do own. The recipe casually mentions the apples should be “peeled, quartered, cored”. This is the most time consuming part of the tart for me. I can never seem to get the whole core out cleanly, so I need to trim many of the apples once they have been quartered. Make sure you allow time to prep the apples. I use light sour cream for the pastry, not because I am trying to save calories (trust me, that would be ridiculous), but just because it is what I have in my fridge at all times.
Tarte Tatin
Bon Appétit | September 1995
Pastry for the 10 inch
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1 tablespoons sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup chilled unsalted butter, cut into 3/4-inch pieces
- ¼ cup chilled sour cream (I use light sour cream)
Apple Filling for 10inch tart
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 cup sugar
- 9 medium-size Granny Smith apples, peeled, quartered, cored
- 1 egg, beaten to blend (glaze)
- Crème fraîche or sour cream
For the dough: Blend flour, sugar and salt in large bowl of heavy-duty mixer fitted with whisk attachment. Add butter and beat at medium-low speed until butter is size of small lima beans, about 3 minutes. Add sour cream and beat until moist clumps form, about 1 minute. Gather dough into smooth ball; flatten into 6-inch-diameter disk. Wrap dough in plastic; refrigerate until cold, at least 2 hours. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Keep refrigerated. Let soften slightly before rolling out.)
For the apples: Peel, core and quarter apples, taking care to remove all of the core and peel.
Spread butter over bottom of 10-inch ovenproof skillet with sloping sides (skillet should be at least 1 3/4 inches deep). I use the wrapper from the butter to smear it over the pan.
Reserve 2 tablespoons sugar; sprinkle remaining sugar over butter. Place skillet over medium-low heat and cook until butter melts, sugar begins to dissolve and mixture starts to bubble, about 3 minutes.
Remove from heat. Arrange apples on their sides around edge of skillet, placing tightly together. Arrange as many of remaining apples as will fit, pointed ends up, in circles in center of skillet. Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons sugar.
Once all the apples are in the pan, position rack in center of oven and preheat to 425 °F.
Set skillet over medium heat; boil until thick peanut butter-color syrup forms, repositioning skillet often for even cooking and adding remaining apples as space permits, about 45 minutes (syrup will continue to darken during baking). Set a timer. This time, I only cooked mine for about 35 minutes before it was done; in the past, it has taken closer to the full 45 minutes. Watch closely as you don’t want the apples to burn. Remove from heat.
While the apples are cooking, roll out pastry on floured surface to 10 inch round. I sprinkle a large cutting board with a little flour, then turn the dough to coat. Turn the dough frequently as you are rolling to prevent it from sticking. Add more flour as necessary, but only enough to prevent sticking. Rolling too much flour into the dough can make it brittle.
Place dough over apples once they are ready. Cut four 2-inch slits in top of pastry. Press pastry down around apples at edge of skillet; brush pastry with some of egg glaze.
Bake tart until pastry is deep golden brown, about 18-20 minutes. Transfer to work surface; cool 1 minute. (Don’t let it sit for more than a minute. I cooled the first tart for 10 minutes while I ran my daughter to preschool. When I tried to flip it, the tart stuck in
the middle and came out in pieces. Very,very sad). Cut around edge of skillet to loosen pastry.
Place large platter over skillet. Using oven mitts as aid, hold skillet and platter together tightly and invert, allowing tart to fall onto platter.
Carefully lift off skillet. Rearrange any apples that may have become dislodged. Cool tart 30 minutes.
Cut warm tart into wedges. Serve with crème fraîche.
Adjustments for the 14 inch skillet
Pastry for the 14 inch
- 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 3/4-inch pieces
- 6-7 tablespoons chilled sour cream (I use light sour cream)
Apple Filling for 14 inch tart
- 11 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
- 2 cups sugar
- 15 medium-size Granny Smith apples, peeled, quartered, cored
- 1 egg, beaten to blend (glaze)
- Crème fraîche or sour cream
For the dough: I needed an extra tablespoon of sour cream. Add after nuxing in the first 6 tablespoons, if the dough does not come together, add one more tablespoon of sour cream.
For the apples:
- Roll the dough into a 14 inch round.
- Bake the tart for 20-25 minutes. It is easier to flip the tart if you have two people.
