The Sunday Lunch Apple Dessert
Tarte Tatin from Giverny
FestiveDocumented🍯moyen1 h 15
An upside-down tart where apples melt into an amber caramel under a golden crust, served warm and flipped at the last minute. The sweet triumph of the Norman apple, and the finest way to end a meal at the master's table in Giverny.
Why this dish? The recipe for the upside-down Tatin tart appears in Monet's kitchen notebooks; he collected good recipes gleaned from his hosts and friends. For a Norman apple lover and a host who regaled his guests, this caramelized dessert was a perfect lunch finale.
This one, I wrote down in my notebook the day I tasted it, I liked it so much — a tart baked upside down, the apples in the caramel and the pastry on top! You flip it at the last moment, in front of the guests, and it's always a little triumph. I want it well caramelized, almost brown, with a spoonful of thick cream melting over it. Believe me, after that, my friends gladly forgave me for chasing them away so I could return to my canvases.
Ingredients
- •Firm orchard apples — about ten (filling)
- •Sugar — two handfuls (caramel)
- •Farm butter — a good lump (caramel and melt)
- •Shortcrust pastry — one disk (lid)
How it was made : The upside-down tart of the Tatin sisters, made famous in the Sologne region at the end of the 19th century, spread through good houses by word of mouth and handwritten notebooks, exactly like Monet's. At the time, it was cooked in a copper mold placed on the corner of the wood stove, then in the oven.
Sources : Claire Joyes & Joël Robuchon, Les Carnets de cuisine de Monet, Éditions du Chêne, 1989