You pack apples into caramel, lay pastry on top, and invert the whole tart onto a plate: dark, sticky fruit, a short crust, butter and sugar cooked past gold into mahogany. Serve it warm, not hot, with a spoon of crème fraîche if you like.
The Tatin sisters of Lamotte-Beuvron, in the Sologne, made it the house tart of their hotel in the late nineteenth century. Accident or invention, the story has been told both ways; it remains the finest apple tart in France.
Use firm apples that will hold a shape. Cook them in the caramel until they begin to soften, then bake at 400°F. Rest five minutes before inverting, or the caramel will run.
Method
- 01
Rub 7 tablespoons of the cold butter into the flour with a pinch of salt until the mixture is sandy, then bind with the yolk and the ice water. Bring it together quickly; you are not kneading bread. Chill 30 minutes so the butter firms and the pastry will bake flaky, not greasy. It should feel cool and smooth when you roll it.
- 02
Peel, halve and core the apples; choose firm ones that will hold their shape, or you will have applesauce under pastry. Melt the remaining butter with the sugar in a 10-inch ovenproof pan and cook, swirling now and then, to a deep amber caramel. It will look a fright — grainy, then clear, then suddenly dark. That mahogany is the flavor; stop before it smokes.
- 03
Pack the apple halves into the caramel, rounded side down, as tightly as you can — they will shrink, and any gap will be a hole in the tart. Cook over medium heat for 10 minutes so they begin to soften and drink the caramel. You should hear a gentle bubble, and the apples will take on a glassy sheen. Don't stir them; let them sit in their places.
- 04
Roll the pastry to a round slightly larger than the pan, lay it over the apples, and tuck the edges down inside the rim, as if tucking in a child. Bake at 400°F until the pastry is bronzed, 30 to 35 minutes. Rest 5 minutes — not 20, or the caramel sets; not zero, or it all runs — then invert onto a plate with conviction. Serve it warm.
