Official Tarte Tatin Recipe
France has wonderful fraternal organizations called confréries (brotherhoods) devoted to good causes—often involving food and wine. There used to be one, La Confrérie de Lichonneux de Tarte Tatin, to "protect and promote traditional Tarte-Tatin," but it seems to have lapsed. This recipe came from their official Tarte Tatin website, now gone. I have not attempted to correct the sometimes awkward translation, as I think it lends charm to the recipe. (Here's the story.)
The noble Confrérie in times past, complete with medallions picturing the honored dessert.
Note their wooden shoes, lending authenticity.
I have given rough US translations of the metric measures (in italics).
Take a relatively high-sided pie dish (for 8, 24 cm diameter) (about 9 inches). Note: this must be a dish that can be placed directly over a flame.
Butter the mold using 150 g (about 5 TB) of fine butter. Sprinkle 125 g (about 1/2 cup) of icing sugar (fine powdered sugar) onto the butter.
Peel approximately 1 Kg (about
2.2 pounds, or 4-5 apples) of apples. Cut
them roughly
into quarters and place them side by side
with the curved side down then fill the gaps
with large slices.
Start cooking on a low flame for 10 to 15
minutes, to monitor the beginning of caramelizing
to your taste. Then place in an oven at between
180 and 200°C [350-400°F) for
approximately 1/4 of an hour.
Take out
and arrange on a base of flaky or short pastry
(I think this means arrange
pie crust on top of apples), slightly larger
than the diameter of the mold, then put back
in the oven for approximately a 1/4 of an
hour.
Once cooking is over, take out of the oven
and allow to stand for a few minutes. Place
a serving dish over your mold and turn out
quickly.
Simply serve as it is, that’s it.
Tips from Jane
— If you have any French music, play it while you’re making this to be even more authentic!
— While some recipes suggest serving it with whipped cream, I tend to agree with the Confrérie, (who wrote “simply serve as it is, that’s it…the addition of cream or flaming with alcohol on service would simply change this unique taste: thus it is to be avoided.”
— The web site suggests drinking a light red wine (preferably from Sologne) or an excellent cider (French cidre is lightly alcoholic) with the Tarte Tatin.
Here's my unofficial Tarte Tatin recipe.