Julia's Classic Apple Tarte Tatin!

One of the most loved desserts that I cook at home is the classic French apple tarte tatin. With just a handful of ingredients, it’s one I turn to often, especially as the weather cools down.

While the caramel can often be tricky to get right, I find adding a little water in the beginning helps avert any caramel crises.

In the warmer months I will often make it with stone fruit, but there is something particularly wonderful about the combination of the apple with the caramel and buttery puff pastry (store-bought is totally fine).

I like Granny Smith apples as they are tart, which works well with the sweetness of the caramel.

If you have a tarte tatin pan, inverting the dessert will be easy, however, a regular oven proof pan works just as well. Enjoy!

Classic Apple Tarte Tatin

(Serves 4-6)

200g caster sugar
60g unsalted butter
6 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and cut into quarters
1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped
Pinch of salt
1 x 375 g sheet puff pastry (I prefer Carême)
Double cream or vanilla ice cream, to serve

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C.

In a 20cm ovenproof pan, place the sugar with 2 tbsp of water. Place onto a medium heat and swirl the pan to help the sugar dissolve. It is really important that you don’t stir the sugar with a spoon as it will crystalise. Cook the sugar until it is a deep amber colour. Add the butter, vanilla and salt and swirl to combine. At this point, you can whisk the mixture to help it come together.

Add the apples to the caramel and cook in the caramel for 4-5 minutes or until they are just beginning to soften around the edges. Arrange the apples in one single layer, cut side up, in a circular fashion.

Trim the pastry into a 23cm circle, Top the apples with the puff pastry and tuck the pastry into the edges of the pan around the apples. Poke a hole in the centre of the pastry with a knife to allow steam to escape as it cooks.

Cook in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes or until the pastry is golden and puffed and the apples are cooked. Allow to cool for at least 30 minutes, but ideally 1 hour, in the pan then invert onto a serving plate. Serve with double cream or ice cream.

What else I’m cooking with: After spending a month in Italy and Malta, it has been so joyful to return home and get back in the kitchen. I have been especially enjoying cooking some of the dishes I cooked in Italy — orecchiette with cime di rapa and anchovies, fennel seed taralli and focaccia stuffed with slow cooked onions and tomato.

Where else I’m eating: Tochi deli for my post-Europe sushi fix!

Click here to download the recipe card!