Tarte Tatin recipe - how to make the 'upside-down' French caramelised apple tart
It took Susan Jung years of trial and error to unlock the secrets to making tarte Tatin - finding the right apples. That, and a dose of patience.
The story of how the tarte Tatin came to be is one of a happy accident.
While at their Hotel Tatin, in Lamotte-Beuvron, France, in the 1880s, the Tatin sisters - Caroline and Stephanie - were cooking a regular apple tart on the stovetop when they realised they had forgotten to add the pastry. (What experienced cook forgets that a tart needs a pastry base?)
Instead, they put the pastry on top of the apples, placed the whole thing in the oven and, when it was baked, flipped it over and voila! A new dessert was born.
The problem is that a tarte Tatin - at least a good one - is not that easy to make; it's taken me years of experimenting. I pored through hundreds of recipe books and watched countless YouTube videos, but my tarts kept turning out soggy, with a caramel that was far too watery. The secret is time, patience - and the right apples.
On the advice of David Lai, chef and owner of On Lot 10 and Bistronomique in Hong Kong, who makes a tarte Tatin I approve of, I now use Fuji apples, which hold their shape and don't get mushy when cooked for a long time.