Shortcrust pastry
200 g Sugar.
1 kg Apples; (pippins).
100 g Butter.
1 Grease the base and sides of a high-sided cake tin, and pour in 100 g of
the sugar. Roll out the pastry. Preheat the oven (gas mark 7 / 425F /
220C).
2 Peel the apples and cut them in half. Remove the core and seeds. Make a
caramel syrup: put the cake tin over a high heat, until the sugar melts,
then tilt the tin to cover the sides with the caramel. Remove from the heat
when the sugar starts to brown. Now put in the apple-halves, standing
upright and closely packed.
3 Sprinkle the apples with the remaining 100 g sugar, add a few knobs of
butter, put the tin over a low heat and cook for 20 minutes.
4 When the fruit is tender, leave to cool, then cover with the pastry. Bake
in the oven for 15 minutes. Lower the heat (gas mark 4 /350F / 180C) and
bake for another 20 minutes. Campanile tip:
When the tart is cooked, put the bottom of the tin in cold water for 1
minute so that the caramel does not stick when you remove the tart.
This recipe made the culinary reputation of the Tatin sisters who ran a
hotel-restaurant in Lamotte-Beuvron at the beginning of the century.
However, the “upside-down” tart is a speciality of the Sologne, and can be
found throughout the Orleans region.
Yields
8 servings