Tart Tatin


Tart Tatin
Tart tatin is one of the great classic desserts of French cooking. It's an apple tart cooked upside down. Apples are cooked in sugar until they caramelise. Then a circle of puff pastry is put on top, and the whole tart is baked at 356°F (180°C) for 20 minutes. To serve, the tart is turned over so that the apples are on top. Apples with caramel and crispy puff pastry taste amazing.

The classic recipe uses shortcrust pastry (pâte brisée), but in this version I prefer to use puff pastry (pâte feuilletée). It's a quite easy recipe, the only difficulty is the "turning over" of the hot tart, always a tricky moment.
412 K 3.8/5 (53 reviews)
Grade this recipe:
Keywords:
Last modified on: October 30th 2015
For 1 tart, you will need:

Change these quantities to make:
Times for this recipe
Preparation: 30 min.
Cooking: 50 min.
All in all: 1 hour 20 min.
When should you start or finish this recipe?
If you start now, at , you will finish around : ?.Change start time
To finish around 7pm, you'll need to have started before: .Change end time

Step by step recipe


Stage 1 - 5 min.
Tart Tatin
You will need a pan or tin which can go both on the hob and in the oven, preferably non-stick.

Cut a circle of puff pastry the same diameter as your pan, prick all over and put back in fridge.

Stage 2 - 10 min.
Tart Tatin
Peel 1 kg apple, cut into 4 or 8 according to size, remove core.

Stage 3 - 10 min.
Tart Tatin
Melt 60 g butter in your pan over medium heat, add 120 g caster sugar.

It might seem to you that there is a lot of butter, but don't worry, it's normal: the apples will absorb most of it.

Stage 4 - 2 min.
Tart Tatin
Put apple quarters into melted butter, packed together as closely as possible.

Leave to cook until sugar caramelises.

Preheat oven to 356°F (180°C).

Stage 5 - 15 min.
Tart Tatin
After about 10 minutes, sugar will start to caramelise and apple juice boil.

Stage 6
Tart Tatin
The apples are sufficiently cooked when sugar around the edge of the pan is a light caramel colour.

Stage 7 - 5 min.
Tart Tatin
Put pan in the oven for 5 minutes.

Stage 8 - 3 min.
Tart Tatin
After these 5 minutes, remove and put puff pastry on top.

Stage 9 - 20 min.
Tart Tatin
Put back in the oven for about 20 minutes.

Stage 10
Tart Tatin
Remove from oven when puff pastry is golden brown.

Stage 11 - 5 min.
Tart Tatin
Now for the tricky bit: use oven gloves to protect your hands and put serving plate on top of Tatin tart.

You should do this operation whle hot, otherwise apples stick on the bottom of the pan during cooling.

Stage 12 - 1 min.
Tart Tatin
Turn over smartly...

Stage 13 - 1 min.
Tart Tatin
... then remove pan: your Tatin is a success!

Stage 14
Tart Tatin
At my opinion, nothing goes better with warm tart Tatin than a little whipped cream (crème chantilly).
Remarks
The recipe for Tart tatin comes from central France, via the pretty story of the Tatin sisters who ran a restaurant in Lamotte-Beuvron and invented the famous recipe, which now bears their name.
Keeping: Once cooked, a few minutes.
Source: Home made but after a recipe by Gaston Lenôtre.
Nutritional information
Proteins (gr)Carbohydrates (gr)Fats (gr)Energy value (in k-calories)Energy value (in k-joules)
Whole recipe110 RDI=40 %1,090 RDI=100 %840 RDI=130 %2,430 RDI=120 %10,150 RDI: 120 %
Per 100 g8 RDI=3 %80 RDI=7 %60 RDI=9 %170 RDI=9 %720 RDI: 9 %
The % figures are calculated in relation to the Recommended Dietary Intake , or RDI of 2,000 k-calories (or 8,400 k-joules) per day for a woman Change to a man
Possible allergens in this recipe: Milk, Gluten, Sulfites
How much will it cost?
  • For 1 tart : 2.75 €

Change currency:

Note: Be careful, these prices are only an estimate, you can consult the table of prices by ingredients used for this estimate.
This recipe uses (among others)
Other recipes you may also like
Passion fruit jellies
Passion fruit jellies
Usually to make fruit jellies or (fruit "paste"), it's like jam but you need to cook fruit pulp and sugar much longer. Unfortunately, this long cooking is bad for both vitamins and flavour. In this recipe we use a special jam gelling agent, to reduce cooking time as much as possible .
July 4th 2018337 K4 2 hours 30 min.
Rice pudding (riz au lait)
Rice pudding (riz au lait)
My personal version of this classic family recipe.
December 18th 2018402 K5 40 min.
Marzipan (almond paste)
Marzipan (almond paste)
Very easy to do if you have a food processor which can slice or grate a lot of things.
December 19th 2021636 K 34.5 15 min.
How to succeed in making sabayon (syllabub)
How to succeed in making sabayon (syllabub)
A sabayon is a delicious and delicate preparation based on egg yolks and sugar, with a liquid added (wine, alcohol, fruit juice, etc), which is then whipped in a bain-marie until it is both light and smooth. Usually sabayon is sweet (syllabub), but you can make it savoury, in which case there is...
November 12th 2017940 K 54 20 min.
French dressing (vinaigrette)
French dressing (vinaigrette)
Here is a very simple recipe, but it could completely transform, maybe even transcend, your salad.
July 7th 20111.06 M4.5 7 min.
News list of cooking-ez.com

Sign up to receive the latest recipes (next batch due to be sent on 2025-06-22)

*Your e-mail Your first name or nickname
I am not a leaving thing
Note: We'll never share your e-mail address with anyone else.
Post a comment or question
Posted by:
I am not a leaving thing
The 3 comments already posted on this recipe
  • Yes, but it's a caramel, the color is a very easy indicator that you can adjust to your taste too.If you want to use a thermometer anyway, a caramel start at 160°C (checkout cooking sugar).
    Posted by jh may 2nd 2025 at 06:28 n° 3
  • It would be useful to have the temperature of the sugar at stage 6. I guess that if we don't cook the sugar enough the tart will turn into a soup...
    Posted by hmijail@gmail.com may 1st 2025 at 14:17 n° 2
  • I've actually prepared this exact recipe before from the cookbook. Gee, mine did not look as "pretty" as yours:)
    Posted by louise may 17th 2009 at 19:04 n° 1

Follow this recipe (as 9 people already do)
If you are interested in this recipe, you can "follow" it, by entering your email address here. You will then receive a notification immediately each time the recipe is modified or a new comment is added. Please note that you will need to confirm this following.
I am not a leaving thing
Note: We'll never share your e-mail address with anyone else.
Alternatively: you can subscribe to the mailing list of cooling-ez.com , you will receive a e-mail for each new recipe published on the site.

Back to top of page