Tarte Tatin

Ingredients

• 1.5 kg firm apples such as Reine des Reinettes, Braeburn or Golden Delicious
• 150g caster sugar
• 100g unsalted butter, diced
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 375g all-butter puff pastry
• A pinch of fine salt
• Plain flour, for rolling
• Creme fraiche, to serve

Before you cook

• Peel, quarter and core the apples, then toss them with the lemon juice.
• Choose a heavy ovenproof frying pan or tatin mould about twenty-four centimetres across.
• Roll the puff pastry on a lightly floured surface into a circle two centimetres wider than the pan.
• Prick the pastry circle all over with a fork and chill it flat on a plate for twenty minutes.

Steps

1. Heat the oven to 190C fan.
2. Scatter the sugar in an even layer across the base of the cold pan and set it over medium heat.
3. Let the sugar melt without stirring, tilting the pan now and then, for about six minutes until it turns a deep amber.
4. Take the pan off the heat and drop in the butter and salt, standing back as it spits.
5. Swirl the pan until the butter and caramel come together into a smooth sauce.
6. Pack the apple quarters into the caramel standing on their cut sides, curved backs upward, in tight concentric rings.
7. Wedge the remaining pieces into any gaps, because the apples will shrink considerably as they cook.
8. Return the pan to medium heat and cook for twenty minutes, basting the apples with caramel every five minutes.
9. Take the pan off the heat and let it cool for ten minutes.
10. Lay the chilled pastry over the apples and tuck the overhang down inside the pan with the back of a spoon.
11. Bake for thirty minutes until the pastry is puffed, deep golden and crisp all over.
12. Let the tart settle in its pan for exactly five minutes and no longer, or the caramel will set and glue it in place.
13. Run a knife around the edge, put a large plate over the pan, and turn the whole thing over in one confident movement.
14. Lift the pan away and nudge back into place any apples that have shifted.
15. Serve warm with a spoonful of creme fraiche.