1 Preheat your oven to 445°F (230 °C) (gas mark 7-8).
2 Peel your apples, cut them in half and use a spoon to remove the seeds. Cut each apple half into three quarters.
3 In a round non-stick or enamelled cast iron mould, about twenty centimetres in diameter and 10 cm high, melt 3.5 oz (100 g) of butter with 5.25 oz (150 g) of sugar over the heat. Remove from heat and arrange your apple quarters in height on two layers, making circles from the edge to the centre, pressing them together firmly.
4 Place in the oven for 25 minutes.
5 Roll out your pastry to make a disc slightly larger than the mould diameter, then prick it with a fork.
6 Return your mould to the heat. This is the evaporation period, when the juice from the apples combined with the butter and sugar creates the caramel. You'll already start to smell something wonderful.
7 Remove your tart from the heat and let it cool for 10 minutes. Place the prepared pastry disc over your apples and use a rolling pin to roll over it, which will cut away the pastry that overhangs the edges of the mould.
8 Bake for 20 minutes at 390°F (200 °C) (gas mark 7).
9 Remove from the oven and let it rest for 10 minutes. Run a small knife all around the edge of your dish to loosen the sides of your Tarte Tatin. Simply return it to the heat for 1 minute, then turn it out upside down onto your serving plate. The pastry will be on the bottom and, if you've done it right, the apples will be on top, beautifully caramelised.
Serve it just warm to enjoy it as is. It needs no other embellishments like cream or ice cream, it's perfect on its own. Serve it with a good bowl of farmhouse cider, for example.
This recipe is the signature dish of chef Marcel Fraudet, who spent much of his life researching not only this basic recipe but also the lives of the Tatin sisters, the varieties of apples used, and more. Yet now, when everyone claims to defend French cuisine, these same people don't hesitate to dress up this recipe, which is simply about apples and nothing else, with every possible variation imaginable.
A national Tarte Tatin competition bears the name « Marcel Fraudet », which says it all.
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