Page 143 - Pie It Forward: Pies, Tarts, Tortes, Galettes, and Other Pastries Reinvented

Apple Tarte Tatin

MAKES 1
(10- /25- )

? The
Austrians create pastry to commemorate victory in battle; the
Germans create pastry to get rid of leftovers; the English create
desserts that can be simmered in one pot for days—but the French

are always screwing up and coming up with something wonderful.
What gives?
Tarte tatin is made up of not just une mistake française but deux!
Puff pastry was allegedly created from an apprentice baker’s blunder
of forgetting to add butter to the dough. He ended up folding the
butter in after the dough was mixed and—voilà!—laminated puff
pastry. In the case of tarte tatin, the pastry idiots savants at the Hotel

Tatin had meant to make a traditional apple tart with the apples
baked in a tart shell. But someone left the apples caramelizing on
the burner too long, so she thought she’d save the dessert by
placing the pastry on top of the cooking apples. and then she shoved
the entire thing in the oven to finish it off. In true French fashion, the
disaster was delicious. Why doesn’t this ever happen to me?

Traditional Puff Pastry (page 8 ounces 225 g
25)
tart apples, such as Granny
Smith, cored, peeled, and 10
cut into quarters (see Note,
page 85)

juice of 1 lemon
unsalted butter ½ cup 115 g

vanilla bean paste 1 teaspoon 5 ml
brown sugar, firmly packed 1 cup 220 g

salt ¼ teaspoon 1.5 g

heavy cream, whipped, for 2 cups 480 ml
serving