Editorial: Kockums JernverkPublished: 2026-11-06

Tarte tatin (upside-down caramelised apple tart)

Name: Tarte tatin (upside-down caramelised apple tart)
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 1 h 10 min
Cuisine: French
Ingredients: 6–7 tart, firm apples, such as Granny Smith or Braeburn (about 1 kg); 100 g caster sugar; 50 g butter; A pinch of salt; 1 tsp vanilla extract; 1 sheet ready-rolled puff pastry, about 250 g; Crème fraîche or vanilla ice cream, to serve

Serves 6 · 1 hour 10 minutes · Frying pan and pie dish

Tarte tatin is a French upside-down apple tart with deeply caramelised fruit. In the frying pan and pie dish you make the caramel on the hob, bake in the oven and turn out the tart from the same pan.

Tarte tatin is a French apple tart in which apple quarters are cooked in butter caramel, covered with puff pastry, baked and turned out with the apples on top. It is best with tart, firm apples packed in tightly, a caramel taken to a deep amber and a short rest before turning out.

Freshly turned-out tarte tatin with glossy caramelised apple quarters on puff pastry on a wooden board, with a round carbon steel pan with two short handles behind

Ingredients

Serves 6

6–7 tart, firm apples, such as Granny Smith or Braeburn (about 1 kg)
100 g caster sugar
50 g butter
A pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 sheet ready-rolled puff pastry, about 250 g
Crème fraîche or vanilla ice cream, to serve

Method

Heat the oven to 200 °C. Peel, quarter and core the apples.
Scatter the sugar evenly over the pan and dot with the butter. Let it melt over a medium heat without stirring, just swirling the pan, until the caramel is a deep amber, 5–7 minutes. Stir in the salt and vanilla.
Pack the apple quarters tightly on their sides, rounded side down, in the caramel; they shrink as they cook. Cook over a medium heat for 12–15 minutes until the caramel is bubbling thickly and the apples have started to soften.
Cut a round of pastry 2 cm wider than the pan. Lay it over the apples, tuck the edge down inside the pan and prick the pastry a few times.
Bake in the middle of the oven for about 25 minutes until the pastry is puffed and golden brown. The pan and its handles will be very hot, so use oven gloves.
Leave the tart to rest for 5 minutes. Run a knife around the edge, place a plate or board on top and turn the pan over in one confident move. Serve warm with crème fraîche or vanilla ice cream.

Why it works

The pan has no wooden handles, so the same pan goes from hob to oven. The two short handles give a secure grip when you turn out the hot tart, and the carbon steel caramelises the apples evenly.