Easy apple tarte tatin recipe

Make like a French pastry chef and try this recipe for our simple tarte tatin.

Some people think of this classic French dessert as something best left to the patisserie chefs but at its core, a tarte tatin is just a fancy upside-down cake (but with caramelised fruit and pastry). Doesn't sound so scary when we put it like that, does it? Our tarte tatin (named after the Tatin sisters who invented it) is topped with syrup-soaked apples but you can experiment with other fruit if you would prefer. The best thing about this tarte tatin recipe is that it's ready to serve in just 20 minutes – we love it with vanilla ice cream.

Ingredients

• 4-6 apples, peeled, cored and quarted
• 150g butter
• 125g caster sugar
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 150g flour
• 2 egg yolks

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200º C.
2. First make the pastry. Combine the flour,100g of the sugar and 100g of the butter together in a food processor until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add the egg yolks and combine until your pastry cleans the bowl. Wrap in cling film and chill for 30 mins.
3. Heat the remaining butter in an ovenproof frying pan add the remaining sugar. When the butter and sugar has melted, add the lemon juice and apples. Coat the apples evenly in the syrup and then carefully arrange in the pan, cut side up.
4. Roll out the pastry to cover the apples, trimming off any that hangs over the side of the pan. Prick with a knife 2 or 3 times, place in the oven and bake for 20 mins.
5. After 20 mins, reduce the heat to 170º C and bake for another 20 mins. Remove from the oven, run a knife around the edge and leave to rest for a few minutes.
6. To serve, turn over carefully onto a serving plate. If any pieces of apple remain in the pan, gently replace them onto the tart. Serve warm with cream or ice cream, and some vanilla if you fancy it, too.

Top tip for making tarte tatin

You could also try serving this with clotted cream instead of ice cream. The clotted cream works wonders with the tangy apple and thick buttery case.